‘PDP leader, 2 police officers among land grabbers’
Gopal Sharma
JAMMU, Oct 1: In a major joint operation today, the Jammu district administration and Jammu Development Authority (JDA), assisted by police and paramilitary forces, razed nearly 150 structures and cleared nearly 250 kanal prime Government land worth crores allegedly grabbed by many people including a senior PDP leader and two police officers, at Sidhra in Jammu district.
Official sources said that following instructions from the top in the State Administration and also standing directives from the J&K High Court, the entire District Administration led by Deputy Commissioner, Jammu Ramesh Kumar and assisted by SSP Vivek Gupta and Vice Chairman JDA, Pawan Rathore launched a well coordinated operation and cleared nearly 250 kanals of JDA/ Forest/ State land at Dwara, Majeen near Sidhra Golf Course at the bank of river Tawi.
A strong contingent of nearly 250 Police and Paramilitary forces led by SP Rural, Jammu Dushyant Sharma and SP South Vinay Sharma, Additional Deputy Commissioner, Rashpal Singh, Director Land Management JDA DS Katoch, Collector Land Acquisition JDA Narinder Kour, Chief Enforcement Officer, Dr Rehana and others launched operation at around 6 am early morning today and engaged six bulldozers/ JCBs to demolish the structures illegally raised on JDA, State and Forest land.
It was surprise for the land grabbers who were unaware of this swift operation by Administration as some of them were just sleeping in their houses at that time. They came out in panic and also showed some resistance but initially but observing well equipped strong police contingent, they did not dare to create hurdles in the operation though some women tried to lay down before the JCBs and also had little scuffle with the lady police at the site. The team cleared the entire area during six hour operation. All the adjoining passages were sealed by the policemen and no outsiders were allowed to enter the area from all the sides till the operation was completed.
Sources in the JDA revealed that this area was already cleared twice by the Administration but it was re-grabbed by the land mafia. The sources further revealed that a senior PDP leader from Jammu and two Police officers including one of them in SP rank, were also among the people who had grabbed some portion of this costly land near Sidhra Golf Course. This time the Administration is going to fence this entire cleared area and also deployed police men to prevent re-grabbing of this prime Govt land worth crores.
Vice Chairman JDA, Pawan Rathore when contacted said that following instructions from the top in the Administration, a joint operation was today organized. He said it was well coordinated, most successful and violence- free operation. Rathore said he himself along with his subordinate staff besides ADC Jammu, ACR, two SPs and other officers were supervising the operation on the spot. He said about 40 Pucca structures/ houses , nearly 50 plinths/ boundary walls and over 60 other type of structures were demolished during about 5-6 hour long operation. Six JCBs had been engaged at work. He said such operations will go on in phased manner.
Replying to a question, the VC JDA said that detail of the land encroachers is being sent to the Governor’s Secretariat and more over as per instructions, the retrieved land will be fenced on war footing. He further said that they had also directions from the J&K High Court to remove all the encroachments along river Tawi and in coming days, the operation will continue in other areas as well.
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