A day after asking for a written report from Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on the encroachment of government and private land, exodus of Hindus from Kairana and Mathura violence, Governor Ram Naik on Wednesday directed the UP government to publish a white paper on encroachments on public land in the state.
Earlier this month, BJP president Amit Shah had described the SP government as the 'government of land grabbers’. He had also vowed to fight against land grabbing at administrative, political and legal levels to get public and private lands freed from encroachments. The BJP has also
issued an email ID to collect information from the masses across the state.
In a letter to the CM on Wednesday, the Governor directed his government to bring out a white paper of illegal encroachments on land in UP.
Naik said that the document should include information on land occupied by persons, organisations and the category of land like parks, grounds, grazing yards, ponds and other lands of public use and also the area of such lands.
The Governor also said that the information should include the approximate market value of such lands and the period under illegal occupation. He advised that the government should obtain a report from District Magistrates and Urban Development authorities about losses incurred due to these encroachments.
In his missive, the Governor said, "To prevent recurrence of incidents like Jawaharbagh in Mathura, the state government should evict encroachers from the land of urban local bodies and Urban Development authorities and take possession of those lands.’’
Naik pointed out that in many districts, public land is under illegal possession for long periods and despite orders from the courts, the encroachers are yet to be evicted.
"The illegal possession of public land is violation of the 'UP Parks, Grounds, Playgrounds (conservation and regulation) Act, 1975 and UP Tree Conservation Act, 1976, UP Public Property (damage prevention) Act 1984 and UP Revenue Code, 2016,’’ said the letter.
On Tuesday, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav met the Governor to apprise him about action taken by the state government in the Jawahar Bagh incident of Mathura where 29 people including two police officers were killed during an operation against encroachers on June 2.