Sindh govt to register affected persons for resettlement

After outcry over demolitions of structures along the banks of irrigation canals from different segments of society, the Sindh cabinet decided on Friday to register persons affected by the razing of structures for resettlement.

Scores of dwelling have been razed as part of an anti-encroachment drive to clear the Sindh Irrigation Department's land of illegal structures on the court's directives.

Presiding over the cabinet meeting on Friday, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah directed irrigation department officials to conduct a survey of irrigation canals to assess the area of the department's land that had encroachments built on it and the area of land that the department needed so that the government could repossess the surplus land.

The meeting was told that the Sindh High Court, in a constitutional petition, had directed the irrigation department to clear encroachments from its land, especially those constructed on irrigation channels.

Following that, the irrigation department had launched a demolition drive to remove encroachments erected on main canals, branch canals, distributaries, minors, drains and bunds, so as to remove hindrances in the way of irrigation operations.

At that, cabinet members pointed out that the anti-encroachment drive had displaced scores of people, most of them poor. They said multiple villages had been bulldozed and residents had no option but to live under the open sky.

After a long discussion, the cabinet directed the irrigation department to make an assessment on the basis of its operational needs of the area of land it required, the area of land presently in its use and the area it would need in the future for colonies, right of way, channels, regulators and other purposes, so that encroachments from its land could be removed and the provincial government could repossess the additional land.