The Uttar Pradesh government has set up a five- member task force for evicting encroachers from the land of Irrigation department in Lucknow from March 15.
The task force will be headed by the district magistrate of Lucknow.
The total number of assets of Irrigation department in Lucknow is 821, of which 44 assets worth about Rs 400 crore are under adverse possession.
The total land area of the department’s assets in Lucknow is 3,822 hectares.
The drive to free the Irrigation department land from encroachments will later be extended to entire state.
On Monday, Irrigation Minister Mahendra Singh presided over a meeting for launching the drive to free the land from encroachers. The minister directed the officials to remove all encroachments on the Irrigation department land behind Yojna Bhawan at the earliest.
Singh said that the illegal occupants be served notices to vacate the land to avoid legal proceedings. He said that every inch of land of the Irrigation department would be freed from encroachments and if an employee or officer of the department was found to be conniving with encroachers, they would be brought to justice.