PCS, judicial officers on encroachers’ list

Rajmeet Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 23

The names of several top government officials have figured on the list of encroachers compiled recently by the state government.

Usually, encroachments by private parties are put under the scanner by the authorities concerned, but in a recent exercise carried out to identify illegal occupation of government land, offices, residences and rest houses, several senior police, PCS and judicial officers, besides some departments have figured among the defaulters.

There are also cases where the lessee department has not paid rent running into lakhs of rupees.

The police department is the single largest occupant of government properties that are being used to house offices and residences of officers. Some of these occupants have been squatting for the last 30 years, reveals official record.

More than 150 encroachments by government departments have been found on the basis of inputs sought by the office of the Chief Secretary. The PWD, in its report, has mentioned that the occupants — an IAS officer, senior police officers, PCS officers of residential government accommodation in Sector 39, Chandigarh, and Taylor Road in Amritsar — have not paid rent for the last more than two years. Officials of the general administration department have been instructed to recover the rent.

In case of PWD rest house in Bathinda, the audit department has pointed out its illegal occupation by the office of Bathinda IG for the last 11 years. A recovery of Rs 1.69 crore is pending.

Similarly, the PWD rest house on the Rani Jhansi Road, Civil Lines, Ludhiana, houses the residence of DIG, Ludhiana range.

Apart from the PWD, other departments that have furnished the list of properties included forest, power and irrigation, higher education, technical education and industrial training, local bodies, and rural development and panchayat department.

The information was sought from various departments after the Panchayat Samiti, Nawanshahr, filed a civil writ petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court against a move by the Deputy Commissioner (DC), Nawanshahr, to set up sports club on 72-kanal land owned by the samiti.

Meanwhile, the forest department has already launched a drive to remove encroachments on forestland in various parts of the state. In the first phase, encroachments over 400 acres of forestland in Ludhiana are being removed. Senior officials said they had been told to conduct a survey of forestland, which had illegally been encroached upon.

Violations galore

• In a recent exercise carried out to identify illegal occupation of government offices, residences and rest houses, several senior police, PCS and judicial officers, besides some departments have figured among the defaulters
• More than 150 properties have been encroached upon by various departments, with the state police being the single largest occupant of government properties that are being used to house offices and residences of officers