ISLAMABAD, Jul 27(ABC): Pakistan Railways has retrieved around 523 acres precious land worth billion of rupees from illegal occupants under its anti-encroachment operation across the country. “The encroachment operation has been launched with the assistance of railway police and district administrations,” an official in the Ministry of Railways told.
Giving details, he said, the department retrieved 267 acres land in Punjab, 129 acres from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 103 acres from Sindh and 24 acres from Balochistan. The official said that out of the total land, 97 acres were commercial, 3165 acres were residential and 110 acres were the agricultural land of the Pakistan Railways.
He said the government was taking several steps to retrieve encroached land from the land grabbers including detailed survey was being carried out to identify the encroached land, occupied by the individuals and under illegal occupation of various government departments.
The official said the campaign was being monitored by the Divisional Superintendents, Headquarters office and Ministry of Railways. The Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and joint procedure orders had been issued since for strict implementation of this policy, the official added.
He said that First Information Reports (FIRs) were being lodged and cases were registered and sent to Pakistan Railways Judicial Magistrates for expeditious trial. The issue regarding illegal occupation and possession of Pakistan Railways land by government departments and institutions had also been taken up with the concerned departments, he added.
He said it was an ongoing campaign which would continue till the elimination and regularization of encroachments. The official said Pakistan Railways owned 167,690 acres of land across the country, of which 90,326-acre is in Punjab, 39,428-acre in Sindh, 28,228-acre in Balochistan and 9,708-acre in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.