Rs1b land retrieved from squatters

LAHORE: The district administration restarted its anti-encroachment operation in Tehsil City, Raiwind, Shalimar and Cantt and retrieved 673-kanal agriculture and commercial state land worth over Rs1 billion here on Wednesday.

The district officials said five operations were carried out in the areas of Farrukhabad Begum Kot, Mouza Bhi Kot Raiwind, Hanjarwal Multan Road, Eicho Gill and Thela Gulla. They said Assistant Commissioner City, Safdar Virk, in an operation in Farrukhabad retrieved 104-kanal and 10-marla state land worth Rs 10 crore. Similarly, he conducted second operation in Hanjarwal and recovered 12-kanal and five-marla commercial state land worth Rs 86 crore.

Shops, Havelis and structures were removed with heavy machinery from the land. In another operation at Mouza Bhi Kot Raiwind, Assistant Commissioner, Raiwind, Asim Saleem led the operation and retrieved 18-kanal and six-marla land worth Rs 17.5 million and demolished a structure with heavy machinery. In another operation, Assistant Commissioner, Shalimar, Zaheer Liaquat retrieved 400-kanal agriculture state land worth Rs 40 crore from Mauza Eicho Gill.

Similarly, Assistant Commissioner Cantt Haider Abbas Wattoo conducted an operation in Mouza Thela Gulla and retrieved 140-kanal state land worth Rs 20 crore. Deputy Commissioner, Lahore, Anwar-ul-Haq, appreciated the operations and said the administration would continue anti-encroachment operation indiscriminately and would retrieve every inch of state land from occupiers and encroachers.