Pakistan Railways registers 1660 cases against land encroachers
ISLAMABAD, (MILLAT ONLINE):Pakistan Railways has registered 1660 cases and 1767 accused were arrested during the ongoing anti-encroachment operations.
“The accused involved in 1179 cases were convicted whereas 35 were acquitted and 61 cases are under investigation,” an official source in the Ministry of Railways told APP.
First Information Reports (FIRs) are being lodged and cases are registered and sent to Railway Judicial Magistrates for expeditious trial, the source said.
To a question, he said that 4,196.79 acres of land of the Pakistan Railways is either encroached by private individuals or illegally possessed by the other government departments throughout the country.
Giving detail, he said that “as many as 2158.697 acres of land has been encroached in Punjab, 250.914 acres of land in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,1167.711 acres of land in Sindh and 619.468 acres of Railways land in Balochistan,” he said while giving province-wise breakup of the encroached land.
Pakistan Railways has retrieved and regularized 3,573 acres of land by conducting anti-encroachment operation which is still continuing against encroachers.
The ministry has taken steps to retrieve the encroached land and carried out a detailed survey to identify railways illegally occupied land by individuals and government departments.
The campaign is being monitored by the Divisional Superintendents, Headquarters Office and at the level of Ministry of Railways.
A comprehensive policy has been drawn to prevent further encroachments. This policy makes the concerned Pakistan Railway officers and Railway Policy officials jointly responsible in case of any new encroachment.
Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and joint Procedure orders have since been issued for strict implementation of this policy.
The issue regarding illegal occupation of Railway land by government departments has also been taken up with concerned departments.