Railways officials on Friday revealed that stay orders by courts of law, heavy resistance from the encroachers, registration of FIRs against the officials and non-co-operation are major problems being faced while removing the encroachments. This was revealed in the Sub-Committee of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Railways, which met with Ramesh Lal in the chair to examine the collection/consolidation and presentation of Railways land encroachment in Rawalpindi for the last two years.
Divisional Superintendent Railway Rawalpindi, Munawar Khan informed the committee 97.68 acres of Railways land has been encroached by government organisations and 87 acres by private organisation and 95.77 acres by private encroachers in Rawalpindi division.
Joint Secretary Pakistan Railways Munawar Shah informed the committee, 72.36 acres of Railways land worth Rs 2.5 billion has so far been retrieved since May 2013. About 49.73 acres of agriculture land, 14.33 acres of commercial and 8.3 acres of residential area has so far been retrieved in the drive against encroachers, he added.
Railways officials revealed that Railways land in Rawalpindi division was leased out for agriculture/stacking purpose at the Rs 45.29 million during April 2014-May 2015, of which it earned Rs 7.24 million prior to March 2014. MNA Jafar Iqbal proposed Railways Ministry to write letters to concerned departments, who encroached on Railways land for giving alternate land. The committee recommended taking stern action against the encroachers and vacating Railways land. Ministry officials said that a large number of FIRs have so far been registered against encroaches and anti-encroachment program is scheduled every month.
Officials urged for posting of special magistrate for delegation of magisterial powers to divisional engineers, extension of Railway police jurisdiction to the entire Railway property, training of staff in land revenue matters and provision of exclusive anti-encroachment squad including patwari to co-ordinate with revenue department for joint demarcation of the land.