State land reclaimed from grabbers in Nowshera

NOWSHERA: The district administration on Friday reclaimed four-kanal state land on the Nowshera-Mardan Road after launching an anti-encroachment operation, official sources.

The sources said Assistant Commissioner Talha Zubair launched the operation to retrieve the state land and remove the encroachments in Kotarpaan village in the district.

Nowshera Tehsil Municipal Officer Assad Khan, police and relevant revenue department staff backed the operation which was carried out on the orders of Deputy Commissioner Shahid Ali Khan.

The operation was launched in the morning and ended in the evening. Heavy machinery was used to dismantle a plaza which had 16 shops built illegally on the four-kanal grabbed land.

The revenue department officials put the value of the retrieved land at Rs72 million. They said the land had been encroached 10 years ago.

It was learnt that a probe had been launched into the land grab after the reports that some government officials had connived with the grabbers. Meanwhile, the deputy commissioner banned the manufacturing, transportation, sale and purchase of the plastic shopping bags in the district for one month.

The action was taken after imposing Section 144. All assistant commissioners and magistrates were directed to ensure compliance with the ban. Those violating the ban will be proceeded against under Section 188 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

It was gathered that the ban was taken after reports that shopping bags were being manufactured after recycling the old ones. The use of such bags was considered injurious to human health. Besides it was learnt that such bags clogged the sewerage lines and thus was creating public health issue. The official sources said that the one month ban was likely to be extended.