Railway fails to recover over 3,000 acres land from land mafia

Pakistan Railway is quite helpless to recover from the land mafia its more than 3000 acres land worth billions of rupees. Sources in the Ministry of Railways told Business Recorder that the railway officials were preparing a new policy to deal with the land mafia and consultations were going on with all four provincial governments in this regard.
It is learnt that land mafia has illegally occupied nearly 3400 acres of commercial, residential and agricultural land of Pakistan Railways, which is now in the hands of slum dwellers and some influential people.
"We are making serious efforts to recover our land, but unfortunately we have managed only to take back nearly 1700 acres till now," an official said.
According to PR Year Book 2003-04, presented to National Assembly Standing Committee on Railways, railway administration anti-encroachment drive against the land mafia only managed to wrestle 143.460 acres of commercial, 333.477 acres of residential, 1187.155 acres of agricultural land from the powerful mafia.
It is learnt that the main hurdle in removal of encroachments are non-co-operation by civil administration and non-availability of timely assistance by police.
Some local people, having contacts with people in power, are openly supporting land mafia, which is a major concern for railway officials to recover the land.
A good number of Katchi Abadis have sprung on railways land, and people residing there have refused to vacate the place.
In addition to the Katchi Abadis, isolated areas have also been encroached by housing societies, PR ex-employees and their kins.
According to an estimate, around 1300 1212 acres of railway land is under the occupation of Katchi Abadis.
Pakistan Railways has also conducted survey of different places, which indicates that more than 100 Katchi Abadis are occupying 450 acres land in Punjab, 80 Katchi Abadis on 750 acres in Sindh and two Katchi Abadis on 11 acres in NWFP.
It is learnt that Pakistan Railways is preparing a plan of action to deal with the mafia. However, the officials are struggling to settle the policy on land occupation with provincial governments.