Local govt staff should file FIR against encroachers: DC

Tells court anti-encroachment dept officials shun duties

HYDRABAD:

Who or which department shall become a complainant in the first information reports (FIRs) filed at the police stations against the encroachers in Hyderabad? This point of contention drew somewhat a lengthy argument during the hearing of the anti encroachment case at Sindh High Court Hyderabad Circuit Bench on Thursday.

The bench comprising justice Nadeem Akhtar and justice Adnan-ul-Karim Memon directed the municipal authorities and the district administration to lodge FIRs against the encroachers in the light of the October 26 order of the apex court.

However, Hyderabad Deputy Commissioner Fuad Ghaffar Soomro said the urban councils, functioning under the local government, should be given the onus to pursue the police cases against the squatters as the roads and footpaths are their lookout.

“If the assistant commissioners and mukhtiarkars are saddled with responsibility to register the FIRs [against encroachment] they won’t be able to discharge their own duties,” he said. He alleged that the anti-encroachment cells functioning under the municipal authorities contribute to creation of encroachments on the roads and footpaths instead of performing their duty.

“They [staff of the anti-encroachment cells] extort bribes and remain indifferent [to the encroachment.” Soomro pointed out that the district administration is also tasked to strike out squatters from the land owned by the forest, irrigation, auqaf and other government departments and as such becoming complainants in all the FIRs will be very difficult.

Nevertheless, he said, the revenue officials headed by him have been proactively steering the anti-encroachment operation in Hyderabad and a large part of the government land has already been retrieved. He apprised the court that in a recent action at the Badin Bus Stop, the only government authorized bus stand in Hyderabad currently functioning, the revenue officials came under attack.

A proposal of appointing a focal person to head the campaign and pursue the FIRs was also floated during the hearing.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 19^th, 2021.