Khanpur Dam: 270 kanals of land reclaimed from encroachers

HARIPUR: The authorities of Khanpur Dam reclaimed the land from the alleged encroachers during a two-daylong drive against encroachment in five surrounding villages of the reservoir, officials said on Tuesday.

The 270 kanals reclaimed land, according to sources, carried an existing market value of millions of rupees. Police and Khanpur Dam sources said that over a dozen influential encroachers had been illegally occupying over 270 kanals of dam’s land for the last over two years.

These encroachers, the sources said, had occupied 50 kanals of land and started agriculture activity while the others had constructed farm houses, hotels, zip-line service, huts, sheds and houses and despite repeated notices and verbal warnings they continued to defy.

However, upon expiry of the last notice, the local police and civil administration had in aid of dam authorities launched the anti-encroachment operation in five revenue mozas (villages) surrounding the Khanpur dam and the anti-encroachment squad demolished both cemented and katcha structures constructed in violation of law on the dam’s land.

The squad razed to ground several houses, extended portions of hotels, shops, huts and sheds through excavators, bulldozers and manual methods. However, no resistance was witnessed as heavy contingents of police headed by DSP Khanpur Uzair Khan remained on high alert to control the situation. Assistant Commissioner Khanpur Zehra Noor, Executive Engineer Shoaib Arshad and the officials of different line departments were also present on the occasion.

Police and dam officials said that during the two-day operation the authorities reclaimed 50 kanals of agricultural land and 220 kanals of land that was under cemented and semi-cemented commercial structures. The value of the land, according to Revenue Department sources, was in millions.