Recovery of railways land NA sub-committee summons Pindi DCO

Over 80 kanal of Pakistan Railways land is currently allegedly occupied by a patwari

RAWALPINDI: A parliamentary sub-committee in a meeting here on Thursday expressed dissatisfaction over the failure of the Rawalpindi District government to recover 82 kanal land, worth billions of rupees allegedly been occupied by a patwari (retired revenue clerk).

The sub-committee of National Assembly Standing Committee on the Pakistan Railways also decided to summon the Rawalpindi district coordination officer to its next meeting over the issue.

The sub-committee members also directed the divisional superintendent of railways in Rawalpindi to submit a comprehensive report on the allegations that 100 kiosks, allotted to widows of railways employees on Railway Road, had been turned into cemented shops and sold to other people.

MNA Dr Ramesh Lal, convener of the sub-committee, Hamidul Haq, and Sardar Irfan Dogar, members of the committee, attended the meeting at the office of the divisional superintendent of railways in Rawalpindi where they were briefed.

Railways Additional General Manager Infrastructure Humayun Rasheed, Railways Director Land and Property Arshad Islam, Director General Technical Syed Munawar Shah, and Divisional Superintendent Abdul Malik briefed the sub-committee members.

Dr Lal asked the railway officials to use the railway police to get the land vacated.

He said that no one was above the law and the authorities needed to use railway police to get the land vacated.

The railways officials said that record of 62 kanals of railways land had been missing in Rawalpindi.

The director land properties said that the railways did not consider it encroached if its land was in use of different departments of the government or the army. The director, however, said that there was no revenue coming from these lands to the railways.

In Rawalpindi, railways authorities have recovered eight acres of land vacated and had generated Rs132 million in revenue. The authorities said that the process of computerisation of railways land record was also underway.

The sub-committee also decided to ensure all possible effort to recover over 4,246.9 acres of railways land from across the country. They decided to hold meetings in all provincial capitals and urge the governments to get the railway land vacated from encroachers.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 6^th, 2016.