ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Railways has registered as many as 1694 cases and around 1830 accused were apprehended during the ongoing anti-encroachment operations by the department.
“The accused involved in around 1179 cases were convicted whereas 35 were acquitted and 61 cases are under investigation,” a senior official in the Ministry of Railways told APP.
“First Information Reports (FIRs) are being lodged and cases are registered and sent to Railway Judicial Magistrates for expeditious trial”, the official briefed.
To a question, he said Pakistan Railways has leased out around 6500 acres railway land across the country to different departments and private persons to generate extra revenue.
“The land was leased and licensed out for various purposes including premium shops, stacking, agricultural and parking stands etc,” he added.
He said it is worth mentioning that Pakistan Railway earned revenue of Rs. 4653.917 million as compared to Rs. 1578.136 million in previous four years.
Giving province wise breakup, the official said that Pakistan Railways has leased out 5,132 acres in Punjab, 833 acres in Sindh, 470 acres in KP and 59 acres in Balochistan.
To another question, he informed that railway administration carried out six anti encroachment operations to retrieve its encroached lands.
The official said that a total of 3594.488 acres Railway land has been retrieved with the assistance of Railway Police and District Administration since February 01, 2012 to December 2017.
In the initial phase, started from February 2012, Railway land measuring 2537.166 acres was retrieved from encroachers.
He said that a comprehensive policy has been drawn up to prevent further encroachments, adding this policy makes the concerned Pakistan Railway official and Railway Police jointly responsible in case of any new encroachment.
“Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) and joint Procedure orders have since been issued for strict implementation of this policy,” the official added.
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