Illegal occupants have to go!

• One day prior the revenue team led by the concerned Tehsildar had served the notices.

jj correspondent

Banihal/Jammu, Feb 12: The illegal occupants do not deserve any sort of clemency and in this concern the Jammu & Kashmir administration is going on to bulldoze all sort of the illegal constructions irrespective the status and power of the encroachers. The process to seal and demolish has become the routine affair in Jammu & Kashmir and the concerned district administration has directed to remove all sort of illegal construction.
The reports pouring in the office explicating that near about 61 shops were sealed and two others bulldozed during the ongoing anti-encroachment drive in Banihal township of Jammu province’s Ramban district. In this concern, two political activists were taken into preventive custody before the start of the drive to retrieve state land along the sub-district hospital road amid tight security arrangements.
It is pertinent to mention that yesterday, the team of revenue officials headed by Tehsildar, Banihal, Imtiyaz Ahmad have served the notices to the owners of the shops who were owning shops illegally maximum belong to pharmacies and clinical laboratories and led to triggering of protest.
A joint protest of shopkeepers and local residents was staged in the tourist hostel, however, a police team swooped on the protesters around midnight and two sarpanches — Mohd Ilyas Wani of Democratic Azad Party (DAP) and Qaiser Hamid Sheikh of Congress had been taken into preventive custody. Whereas, the additional security personnel were deployed across the town today morning and the notified shops were sealed while two were demolished.
The shops that were sealed included 22 pharmacies, nine clinical laboratories and five optical shops as per the reports. The Tehsildar said that the shops have come up on the encroached state land over the years and handed over to Municipal Committee Banihal after being sealed as per the law.
Tehsildar further said that eight marlas of state land, under illegal occupation of a private school, were also freed during the drive which is successfully going on and so far 40 per cent encroachment has been removed.
Meanwhile, the President, Beopar Mandal of Banihal, Pervez Hamid Sheikh requested the district administration to take into account the plight of poor shopkeepers who have lost their livelihood. He further said, “We are thankful to the administration for providing enough time to the shopkeepers to vacate their shops which were not razed.” He clarified that more than 300 people have been rendered jobless by the closure of nearly 50 shops.
Making an appeal to the administration, he said that they appeal to the government to take into account the plight of poor shopkeepers and their dependents and give back possession of shops to their owners as soon as possible.