State land worth billions of rupees retrieved: minister

LAHORE:Minister for Law and Cooperatives Raja Basharat has said in a statement issued on Sunday that the state land owned by the Cooperatives Department in Punjab worth billions of rupees had been retrieved from the land grabbing mafia and recovery of government arrears was underway.

He said that the relinquished land was owned by Punjab Cooperatives Liquidation Board which had more than four and a half thousand kanals of commercial, residential and agricultural lands in Lahore, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Sialkot, Sargodha, Kasur, Attock, Murree and other cities.

Raja Basharat said that the mafia had been kept that land in its illegal control for years. He said that 764 kanals of land at Thokar Niaz Baig, Jalalpura and other places of Lahore alone had been relinquished during the last six months as he assumed the charge of the ministry.

The provincial minister further said that he had also directed Punjab Cooperatives Bank Limited authorities to take effective steps to get evacuate its land from grabbing mafia as soon as possible. He said that the Cooperatives department was being made more farmer-friendly and was being gradually separated from the housing sector.

Raja Basharat said that the election schedule had been issued to revive the long inactive cooperative societies while regular appointment was being made soon to fill the long vacant post of the President Cooperative Bank. "Furthermore, cooperatives stores and service centers are being rehabilitated and issuance of easy loans to farmers for purchase of agricultural implements through Cooperative Bank will be resumed soon," he concluded.

POLICE RETRIEVES 444 KANAL LAND: Lahore police retrieved 444 kanal of state land worth billions of rupees from notorious land grabbers in Jalalpura area of Raiwind on Sunday. Police along with revenue staff and related departments participated in the operation. CCPO Ghulam Mahmood Dogar said that there is no space for Land grabbers and Badmash Mafia in the city. Lahore police will deal with iron hands to those who have illegally possessed the land and property of poor citizens. He said that a special Anti Qabza Mafia Cell as well as a dedicated non- emergency Helpline 1242 has been established at CCPO office for redressal of grievances of citizens affected from land grabbers.