Land grabbing has become a major source of corruption in the State. The mafia of land grabbers has spread its tentacles wide and deep. Officials from concerned departments like revenue, law, forest and police are getting willy-nilly involved in land grabbing incidents. More recent case brought to light is about 2000 kanals of forest land in Samba, contiguous to the area earmarked for the raising of Central University complex. Getting the wind that the inception of Central University at the site would boost the status and value of adjoining land immensely, land grabbers became active and laid claim to large chunks of land adjacent to that of the Central University. It is not a small area that is being contested by at least three claimants, namely forest department, revenue department and the local land grabbers. The greed for land motivating some local persons has led to the beginning of a long drawn litigation about the real ownership of the disputed chunk of land. The local mafia tried to enclose the boundary of a large chunk of land and also raised some construction but the Forest Department dismantled it calling it illegal encroachment and then stepped in the revenue, judiciary and the police departments. Now there is a big mess about the ownership of the land which contains dense forests and bushes. This is going to be a long legal dispute and may carry on for decades. What is of immediate concern is that this procrastinated dispute should not hamper the progress of raising the proposed Central University in Samba which is already delayed by at least two years.
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