The third meeting of the cabinet committee on people illegally occupying different categories of government land in Uttarakhand was held at Vidhan Sabha auditorium on Thursday. The committee headed by the forest minister Subodh Uniyal reviewed the situation with the officers of different departments.
 Uniyal said that the earlier governments had taken a decision to regularise the illegal occupants of category III and IV lands but the time limit of the process needed is over now. He said that discussion on ways of extending this time limit was held with the officers concerned and a decision was taken to prepare an interim report on the issue. This report would be tabled in the meeting of the State cabinet.  Uniyal said that the district magistrates (DM) of all the districts were asked to prepare a report about people illegally occupying the lands of other categories (other than category III and IV) but only three DMs have submitted their report so far. He said that the committee will take its decision on the illegal occupants after the report from all the districts is received. The minister said that the objective of the government is to regularise the possession of the occupants wherever possible as per the rules so that they do not face any problem and remove illegal encroachments from the government land.

 The member of the cabinet committee Rekha Arya was also present in the meeting. The skill development minister Saurabh Bahuguna is another member of the committee. The secretary revenue Sachin Kurve, principal secretary legal Nitin Sharma and other officers were present in the meeting.