Notice to 58 over encroachment of department land

Sanjay Pathak

Kathua, September 16

The Irrigation Department has issued notices to 58 persons who have allegedly encroached upon the department’s land from Lakhanpur to the Palli Morh area of Kathua district.

The department has asked these persons to clear the encroachments within seven days of receiving the notices.

A total of 171 persons have encroached upon Basantpur Canal from Lakhanpur to the Palli Morh area. The department has estimated a total of 1,600 kanals of land which had been encroached years ago. Many persons have even built their houses on the encroached land, sources said.

The Basantpur canal was built by Maharaja Gulab Singh for providing irrigation facilities to the farmers from Basantpur to Palli Morh, but at present, only some portion of the land is being irrigated by this canal, while the rest of the canal has been encroached upon by the people, the sources said.

After the construction of Kashmir Canal and Ravi-Tawi canals in the area, the Basantpur canal was abandoned, which was either encroached or covered by bushes and plants.

As per the revenue records, the Irrigation Department has 55 feet area from the mid of the canal to both sides, but at present, a majority of the canal’s land has been encroached.

“The department has issued 58 notices to the offenders in the first phase and the process of serving notices to the rest of the people has been going on,” said Chandan Sudan, Executive Engineer, Irrigation Department, Kathua.

Sources said Deputy Commissioner Kathua was keen on removing the encroachments from the government land and had been monitoring the day-to-day progress of the notices. issued.

Meanwhile, on Monday a number of people, including women, who had received notices for encroachments from the department, sat on a dharna at the PRO office of the Minister of State Dr Jatindra Singh and called on Speaker Dr Nirmal Singh and apprised them of the situation.

The women alleged that they had built the houses three decades ago, but at that time, nobody had stopped them. Now the department had issued them notices, which was unjust. The Speaker listened to their grievances and assured them to take up the issue with the Governor and his advisers.