The Ranchi district administration has expedited the process to free lands under unauthorised occupants.
The process involves profiling of such occupancies in which an adverse order of a competent court has been passed along with those who have exhausted all the available legal remedies.
“We have got reports from all the circles about such illegal settlers which are being profiled right now. This includes all the old cases in which the SAR court has passed an adverse order. There are few who have appealed in competent courts and in several cases the final verdict has come. Since such occupants have exhausted all the legal remedies their profiling would pave way for executing the eviction drive,” said Ranchi DC Manoj Kumar.
He though added that no timeline for starting the eviction drive had been set at present but the follow up was in the offing. “In the cases relating to 2000-2013-14 it is quite possible that all the available legal recourses would have gone. We are in the process of locating such cases before going ahead,” he said.
While on the eviction of occupants from GM land, the administration has gone slow in the light of recent intervention from the State Government. “We have to find out how the settlement of any GM land is continuing. If it was settled through a valid process like khatiyani or done by the zamindar way back or through a valid Government order subsequently then there is no issue. In the process of examination we got about 1400 cases where settlements were not done properly and the land revenue officials had done it by hukumnama against the set rules,” added the DC.
The administration had sent such names to the Government through lRDC along with details about measurements of land for action. But, in the meantime, the policy intervention has come and it is likely that smaller occupants would be exempted from eviction. This has halted the process and the administration is waiting for any clear direction from the land Revenue Department.
Secretary of the Department KK Soan confirmed about the policy intervention which is being considered. “Reports from districts about illegal occupation of GM land are with us which are being processed. About 6.5 lakh acres of land has been identified all over the State. Modalities are being finalised about how to settle the land with the landless occupants and conduct a survey. We are tightening loose ends before
coming up with a guideline for settling the unauthorised occupants,” said Soan.