Nearly 23,000 hectares of state and 'kahcharai' land were retrieved during the ongoing anti-encroachment drive in different districts of the Jammu division, officials said on Sunday.
The major chunk of 13,793 hectares of land was retrieved from encroachers in Rajouri, followed by over 6,100 hectares in Poonch, over 2,300 in Kishtwar, 15.9 hectares in Udhampur and some parcels in Kathua and Samba districts so far, an official spokesman said.
Quoting information received from Rajouri, he said teams of police and revenue officials visited different tehsils of the district, including Rajouri, Darhal, Thanamandi, Nowshera, Qila Darhal, Sunderbani, Siot, Kalakote, Terayth, Beripatan, Manjakote, Moughla and Khawas, and retrieved 2,75,867 kanals and 12 marlas of state land.
The retrieved land include 2,68,321 kanals and seven marlas of state land, including Roshni land and 7,546 kanals and five marlas of kacharai land, the spokesman said.
In nearby Poonch, he said, against 1,25,030 kanals of encroached land, 1,22,277 kanals and eight marlas have been retrieved till date.
Similarly, out of total encroached 8,530.16 kanals of kahcharai land, 8,391 kanals have been retrieved in different parts of the district, the spokesman said.
He said the retrieved land included commercial land worth crores of rupees which was under illegal occupation of land by mafia and big businessmen including a former legislator from Lasana.
In Kishtwar district, the spokesman said, 75 percent progress was achieved with the district administration retrieving around 47,552 kanals (2,377.6 hectares) of state and Roshni land, out of the total 64,192 kanals.
Under kahcharai land, he said, over 384 kanals have been retrieved, out of the total encroached 572 kanals through a series of anti-encroachment drives. The retrieved land in Kishtwar town is worth crores of rupees, he added.
The spokesman said more than 35 kanals of encroached land was retrieved from illegal occupants in different parts of Kathua district on Saturday.
The retrieved land included over three kanals and six marlas from former minister Prem Sagar Aziz and nine kanals and 15 marlas from District Development Council, Chairman, Kathua, Col (retd) Mahan Singh from Plahi village, the spokesman said.
He said the land freed from the encroachers also includes high-value land worth Rs 2.41 crore in Basohli sub-division.
The Jammu district administration has retrieved prime government land, measuring 20 kanals and five marla, from Machallian-Nagbani village in the Domana area on the outskirts of the city, he said.
The spokesman said 318 kanals of state, kahcharai and Roshni land was retrieved during a day-long anti-encroachment drive in Udhampur district, while district administration Samba retrieved over six kanals of prime commercial Roshni land near Mansar Morh on the Jammu-Pathankot national highway.
A JCB machine was deployed for dismantling the RCC structures, boundary walls and pavements constructed on the land, he said.