HC to CS: Keep govt land, highway free of encroachments

Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh high court has directed chief secretary Prabodh Saxena to instruct the officials concerned to ensure that there was no unauthorised construction or encroachment upon the govt land on or along the national highways, state highways, districts roads, or other local roads.
The division bench of the high court comprising Justice Vivek Singh Thakur and Justice Rakesh Kainthla issued the directions while disposing of a petition pertaining to the encroachments on national highway No. 5 passing through Shimla and Solan districts.
The court noted that almost all encroachments for which the present petition was registered and also which were detected thereafter had been removed and some unauthorised construction cases, wherever permissible under law, were stated to have been compounded. The bench made it clear that the officials must not let reoccurrence or reconstruction of unauthorised structure or encroachment upon the govt land on or alongside the national highway, which has already been removed. “Non-reporting will invite dismissal,” the court underlined.