No headway on eviction of encroachers

13/11/2019

The issue of encroachments on 1400 kanals of forest land and non-serious approach of the Forest Department in removal of the same was brought before the High Court by the inhabitants of village Hari and others in Poonch district by filing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL). Incredible it may sound but it is a fact that administration has failed to make any headway on eviction of encroachers from one forest compartment in a Poonchvillage during the past two years and this has been viewed seriously by the Division Bench of the High Court headed by Chief Justice Gita Mittal, which has dubbed the situation as "deeply distressing". There were approximately 127 encroachers on whom the eviction notices had been served that too after the filing of PIL. It was also submitted before the DB that some of the persons on whom notices were issued had produced documents claiming ownership of the land. It was thus requested that for concluding this process some time was required so that the genuine owners of land might not suffer and the same may not lead to unwanted litigation.
The important issue of eviction of 127 encroachers of forest land is pending in this court since 2017 and the Deputy Commissioner Poonch in the status report has put blame on the prevailing law and order situation in the State particularly in district Poonch for not initiating action for removal of the encroachments. This clearly indicates that two years is not sufficient period for the Forest Department to remove encroachments from one compartment only. If such is the approach towards 1400 kanals of land what could be the pace of removal of encroachments from forest land in other parts of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir can be easily gauged. The dilly-dallying approach in removal of encroachments in one particular village is notwithstanding the fact that on the directions of the Division Bench of the High Court copies of the orders were furnished to the Chief Secretary as well as Commissioner/ Secretary to Government, Forest Department for strict compliance of the orders.

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