916 forest land encroachment cases in 1 year,Punjab tells HC

At a meeting headed by the Punjab chief secretary last month,the government decided that the shamlat land needs to be restored without further delay. The affidavit submitted by the government in the court reads: “Mohali Deputy Commissioner has been directed to conduct a special survey of such choes along with representatives of the Irrigation Department and to submit his report in the next meeting”.

“The Forest Department has taken due diligence to ascertain the identity of the violators from the revenue record. For each and every case that has been prepared,the Forest Department has ascertained details of the land owners from the Revenue record and got them duly authenticated by the concerned Revenue officials,” reads the affidavit. “The Divisional Forest Officer,Rupnagar,had also sent a communication to the DC,SAS Nagar,requesting measures for ascertaining the correctness of the address of the violators” it adds.

Newsline was the first to report that the Punjab government has constituted a Special Investigation Team to probe the case pertaining to alleged illegal properties owned by high-ups in the city periphery. The High Court has given Punjab three months to complete the probe and submit the final report.