Menace of land grabbing

There is a tendency among the Urdu and English media to pay scant attention to problems being faced by the rural population in Sindh. The reason is that there is a lack of interaction between the urban and rural population. Often urban people only meet with rural landlords, not common people, hence it has been noticed that there is a tinge of resentment among the urban population against the rural ones. They don’t realise the challenges and difficulties that common people face there.

A nexus of officers and politicians, pursuing their own vested interests, have made poor citizens’ lives miserable. The combined effect of incompetence and corruption has created a strong perception that the government no longer exist because no department appears to be functioning in accordance to its mandate. As a result, signs of frustration, disillusionment and anger are obvious in the population but no one notices it.

Johi, a sub-division in Dadu district, is a case in point where land grabbers have been given a carte blanche to encroach upon state land. With political patronage, the land grabbers have taken over almost all prime lands of the town. Among the encroached land is the irrigation department’s land, car garage and surrounding land of Mukhtiar Office Johi and freshwater ponds. They haven’t even spared historical places such as an ancient Hindu temple.

To what extent the writ of the government has been eroded can be easily gauged from the fact that the Dadu deputy commissioner and the XEN Irrigation issued a report against such illegal encroachments but no action was taken. The land grabbers have rented out these illegally constructed shops and regularly earn from government property!

Unfortunately, it is becoming a trend now. The government officers concerned either choose to remain aloof or just try to save themselves by preparing some paperwork, but avoid taking the culprits to task. Recently, a group of land grabbers started construction on a plot of land measuring 12,000sq ft in the heart of the town, located opposite the Mukhtiarkar Office Taluka Johi. They have built four shops and a small filling station and are further spreading their wings. Surprisingly, Johi’s top administration official remained ignorant about the matter.

Noticing their helplessness, a local resident and academic attempted to mobilise residents of Johi to challenge the land grabbers. Though a majority of the people privately supported him, they didn’t dare to come out in his support in public.

Initially the Mukhtiarkar Johi indirectly facilitated the land grabbers when the complainant approached his office with a request to take swift action to halt the illegal construction and protect the government land. His response was that all the revenue record has been burnt in riots following the murder of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, so on what basis can the complainant claim that it is government property.

When copies of the land document, available with citizens of Johi, were shared with him, the same were sent to the DC Dadu as well as the commissioner of Hyderabad. Based on the documents, the DC asked the Mukhtiarkar to conduct a thorough inquiry into ownership of the land.

Within a month, the Mukhtiarkar completed the inquiry report and made it public. The report confirmed that it is the state’s land and no one has the permission to build anything on it. Moreover, his report mentioned that in 1993, Civil Court Johi had issued orders to demolish the illegally constructed four shops, which hasn’t been implemented to date!

Despite the deputy commissioner’s order to keep the plot vacant and the civil court’s order to demolish the illegal construction, the land grabbers have resumed additional construction. Who will stop the land grabbers from advancing their nefarious plan, as this issue is not just limited to Johi but is present almost everywhere in rural Sindh? Does anyone care?

Published in The Express Tribune, April 28^th, 2018.

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