Admn gears up to take action against squatters in Jodhpur

Jodhpur: A few weeks ahead of the hearing on the PIL pertaining to encroachment on forest land in Jodhpur, the high court has summoned the principal secretary (forest) for repeated non-compliance of its various orders during the course of the hearing. The forest department and the PHED have geared up to take action to remove the encroachments and disconnect the water supply to the residents of the forest land. The hearing in the case is on March 5.According to an estimation, as per the study of the petitioner Ramji Vyas, there are over 22,000 encroachments on over 500 hectare land in 7 forest blocks of the city.City Superintending Engineer, PHED, Jagdish Vyas said that the preparations have been done and the drive to disconnect water connections on these forest land parcels will be initiated with the help of police on Monday.The PHED had given an ultimatum of severing the water supply to these encroached forest land residents on Tuesday to disconnect water supply after 3 days without any further notice.Parallel to this, the forest department had also issued notices to the encroachers to remove the encroachments from the forest lands in a week, which period is also expiring on Monday. The 7 forest blocks of Jodhpur comprising Beriganga, Motisara, Machia, Chanana Bhakar, Lal Sagar, Bhuteshwar and Devkund have been rampantly encroached nearly in the past two decades and the encroachment is unabated even today. These encroachers, with the help of land mafia, have not only managed the documents but have also managed water and electricity connections.By an order in September last year, the HC had given the directions to the municipal corporation not to regularize any encroachment over the forest land until an NOC was obtained from the forest department. In pursuance of the courts direction in December 2022 to remove these encroachments, the forest department had issued notices to the encroachers and had urged the PHED and DISCOM to disconnect their services but except a small token drive to remove the encroachments on January 2 last year.

Encroachments on Trichy pavements evicted

Trichy Corporation and city police evicted over 60 shops encroaching on pavements near smart drains in three wards. The drive covered Woraiyur, Salai Road, and Takkar Road. Smart drains were built around Rockfort hillock as part of the Smart Cities Mission programme.

Officials 'ignored' intel reports before encroachment drive

It has emerged that the Nainital district administration and police failed to act on intelligence reports provided to them, leading to the escalation of violence during the Haldwani incident.

FIR registered against six for encroachment on Rajgad fort

Other forts in the state, such as Panhala and Vishalgad forts, are also facing encroachment issues. Encroachments in monuments of national importance, like Rajgad fort, are not acceptable.