With tall claims of a turnaround in Pakistan Railways, the authorities have failed to get 4,229 acres of railway land worth Rs 92.78 billion cleared from encroachers, Pakistan Today learnt reliably.
The documents available with Pakistan Today have revealed that out of 4,229 acres encroached by powerful mafia groups, Punjab remains in the grip of powerful mafia where 2170.190 acres of land has been encroached. Out of the total land intruded upon, 7.836 acres is commercial or urban, 1254.747 acres is agricultural or rural, 463.279 acres land is residential while 444.328 acres is encroached by government departments.
Sindh is the province where the encroached land is about 1189.339 acres. Out of the impinged land, 47.749 acres land is commercial/urban, 643.630 acres is rural, 448.275 acres is residential and 49.685 acres is encroached by various government departments.
Balochistan is the province where 619.468 acres of railway lands have been encroached by powerful mafia and individuals. Out of the intruded land, 73.252 acres is urban or commercial, 46.191 acres is agricultural, 441.611 acres is residential and 58.414 acres is encroached by government departments.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the province where relatively less land is encroached. Out of total 250.914 acres encroached land, 1.435 acres is agricultural or rural and 239.479 acres in by government departments.
The documents also hinted at the strategy adopted by the Ministry of Railways to get its land vacated from encroachers.
STEPS TO VACATE ENCROACHED LAND:
Detailed survey was carried out to identify the railway land under the un-authorised occupation.
In order to retrieve the encroached land, anti-encroachment campaign was initiated and land measuring 3522 acres has been retrieved so far, out of which about 1000 acres land has been retrieved during the last three years.
It is an ongoing campaign which will continue till the elimination of encroachments. The campaign is being monitored by the divisional superintendents, Railway Headquarter and at the level of Ministry of Railways. Meanwhile, a comprehensive policy has been drawn to prevent further encroachments.
This policy makes the concerned Pakistan Railway officers/officials and Railway Police officials jointly responsible in case of any new encroachment.
Moreover, Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and joint procedure orders have since been issued for strict implementation of this policy. FIRs are being lodged and cases have been registered and sent to railway judicial magistrate for expeditious trial.
During the current campaign 1487 cases were registered and 1614 accused were arrested. A project for computerization of railway land record has been initiated in order to harmonise the railway land record with the record of all the provincial revenue departments.
The work was awarded to Urban Wing and physically commenced on 1-4-2015 and was to be completed by the end of the previous year. However, there is no update available officially.
This project, on completion will ensure safety of railway land through a computerised monitoring system and render total transparency in land management and commercialisation.