Punjab government spokesperson Hasaan Khawar has said that state land retrieved from land grabbers will be used for projects of public welfare.
He said while addressing a press conference that state land had always been considered the easiest prey by the mafia involved in illegal occupation in the country.
Due to this, some 223,000 acres of state land, belonging to the forest, revenue, Auqaf and other departments, and worth Rs472 billion, was brazenly encroached upon. Of this, 7,000 acres were in urban and about 216,000 acres in rural areas. On instructions of Prime Minister Imran Khan, so far 180,000 acres of the encroached land has been retrieved.
He said the retrieved land would be handed over to the departments concerned and it would be used for projects of public welfare.
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He said Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar had strictly directed the retrieval of the remaining 35,000 acres in the next five weeks.
Khawar said encroachment upon government land was not possible without the connivance of government officials and the mafia. A forensic audit of fires during the previous government would prove the point, he asserted.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 28th, 2021.
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