Seeking the initiation of anti encroachment drive from the top by booking the encroacher Ministers, MLAs and MPs, JKNPP Chairman and former Minister Harsh Dev Singh said that the movement would be successful only if the big fish having usurped State and Forest lands worth millions and trillions are evicted by the administration and punished under law before laying their hands upon the poor and the landless. “Not only the encroachers of prime lands need to be dispossessed and booked for grabbing Govt lands but action is also required to be initiated against those officers who facilitated such large scale encroachments in circumvention of laws by colluding with the encroachers,” he said while addressing a press conference in Jammu today while admitting more than 100 youth in the Party who had quit their respective parties to join NPP. Harsh Dev Singh said that 18 lakhs kanal of Govt land could not have been usurped by encroachers in the State without the backing and connivance of rulers with political and other influential persons holding prime lands without any lawful authority. He alleged that Govt had deliberately avoided to put the names of encroacher politicians, Ministers, MLAs etc on website despite the directions of High Court and was concentrating on eviction of poor and otherwise landless people which was highly condemnable. “With several top politicians, Ex-Ministers, MLAs, MPs and several bureaucrats having encroached huge tracts of Govt lands as revealed in media and through RTI besides through AQs in Assembly, a beginning was required to be made by evicting these mighty and powerful people who had abused their position and authority in the past to loot the State and its resources,” he said. Seeking early action and conclusion of eviction proceedings in a time bound manner against the big, mighty and powerful, Mr Singh said that a white paper should also be issued as to how and why the palatial mansions and commercial hubs constructed on State and Forest lands by politicians and top bureaucrats had been granted immunity from legal and departmental action. Mr Singh appealed the Lt Guv Administration to retrieve the State and Forest land from the Ministers, MLAs, MLCs, MPs and other bureaucrats in areas like Bhatindi, Sunjwan, Chowadi, Nagrota, Bajalta, Roop Nagar, Bantalab etc in the vicinity of Jammu city.
