We very often blame the Government that it was not developing and taking care of important places with great potential of tourism and not providing more facilities but we conveniently either forget or ignore how people grab and illegally occupy public land, cut trees and turn the same into commercial centres to earn money. In most of the cases, lessees overstay the period of the granted lease with the created mess with official records about full details of such leases. Government land and even precious and fragile forests are encroached upon.Pahalgam, a famous tourist spot in Kashmir is a glaring case of this sort. It is only when courts intervene and pass directions that action is supposed to be taken. High Court has directed Pahalgam Development Authority (PDA) to initiate steps for eviction of the unauthorised occupants on state land. It has asked it to file a report of compliance by the next hearing.
It is pertinent to note that the Division Bench of the High Court presided over by the Chief Justice has observed that public land was being exploited for commercial profits . That such illegal acts could not be carried out without explicit connivance of some officials has been duly observed by the Bench calling it as ”collusion of authorities with the illegal acts” and that the PDA has not taken effective steps at all with regard to protection and preservation of Government lands. Not only the High Court, even Apex Court’s rulings are clear cut in such cases and the DB has noted that “Supreme Court ruling binds this court also”. The Court has given an important ruling that persons illegally occupying “lands wherever they are must all be handed over to the Government”.
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