Addressing reporters here on Tuesday, District Collector Anil Mukim said a survey carried out by sub-divisional magistrate Mona Khandhar and mamlatdars I S Patel and G S Dhakre, stated that 74,000 square metre land of the district collectorate was free of encroachments.

``We have moved government seeking instructions to go ahead with proper fencing of these government land plots which are scattered all over the district specially the ones under Town Planning Schemes No 3, 4, 7 and 9 in Danteshwar, Bapod, Jetalpur, Sawad, Sayajipura and Nagarwada areas'', he said. The cost of this land is more than Rs 15 crore as on today, he added.

According to Mukim, the fencing and other measures to protect the same would cost the district administration about Rs 10 lakh. ``This step will help distinguish government land from the privately-owed one,'' he said, adding any encroachment here could be spotted quickly and thus stop more from coming up. He said the areas had also been videographed. To a query about encroachments, Mukim said that it was presumed that more than 75,000 sq metre land belonging to the government had been encroached upon in the district, and stressed a need to check the same. He denied details about the encroachments but agreed that some of the plots had been grabbed by slum-dwellers and also private agencies. He said he was contemplating action against the same.

The action follows complaints of encroachments on land belonging to municipal corporation, VUDA as well as the collectorate. The survey was ordered by Mukim after authorities in Gandhinagar evinced interest in knowing the status of government lands recently. Though the survey had been conducted in about a month's time, Mukim had reportedly sent it back to the SDM and the mamlatdars, asking for more details.