MS came out of deep slumber!
- One RTI activist Harpreet Singh is the whistle blower in this case as he pulled the strings of hospital administration and woke up them.
- There are reports that a large chunk of hospital land out of 52 kanals and 5 marlas have been encroached by the land grabbers but revenue officers and hospital administration remained mute spectators.
- The Lt Governor must identify the revenue and health officers who supported the grabbing of hospital land by private persons and booked under strict law.
jj correspondent
Poonch, Feb 19: The Medical Superintendent of Government District Hospital Poonch has urged Tehsildar Poonch for demarcation of hospital land to know about the encroachment as some people have encroached the land meant for hospital.
It is pertinent to mention that the total land was allotted to District Hospital Poonch in the year of 1961-62 was 52 kanals and 5 marlas vide Khewat No 345 and under 10 different Khasra numbers including 2159, 2169, 2170, 2171, 2173, 2174, 2176, 2156, 2157 and 2158 by the then government and in all aspects the land was handed over to Health Department of Jammu & Kashmir. Till then the land is under the control of Health department and government has constructed District Hospital.
With passage of time, the wicked persons have started the encroaching the land and the then authorities kept watching mutely resulting in the land fell short for the hospital. The issue came into lime light, when a RTI activist filed an RTI application on 29-10-2022 to know about the quantum of land encroached by the people. The administration came in action and the then Medical Superintendent of District Hospital Poonch came in action and wrote a letter vide No RSS/DHP/5153-56 dated 15-02-2023 to revenue department for demarcation.
In turn, the Tehsildar Haveli (Poonch) immediately constituted a commission of nine revenue officers including two Naib Tehsildars vide his office letter No TH/OQ/2661 dated 16-02-2023 and directed them to visit spot on February 17 (next day) and will submit a detailed report on February 20 (tomorrow) for further action.
In his letter, Tehsildar Haveli himself admitted that big chunk of land has been encroached apparently. The letter says as ‘Whereas, Medical Superintendent District Hospital Poonch vide communication under reference has requested that a demarcation of the District Hospital should be carried out as 52 Kanals and 5 Marlas of land is recorded in the name of District Hospital but on ground it seems that a big chunk of land has been encroached apparently. Therefore keeping in view the fact that the matter is of critical and complex nature and such needs to be addressed on priority, consequently a commission of Revenue officials is hereby constituted to conduct demarcation of the said land and submit a detailed report vis-Ã -vis the encroachments (if any) and also submit details of illegal alienations that have taken place on the land which actually belonged to the hospital, with the details of encroachers and the officials who have entered/attested these mutations/revenue entries.’
The order further directed the commission to identify the officers those who had supported the encroachers in encroaching the hospital land so that action may be taken against them too even they have retired from the services.
The Tehsildar told on telephone that commission is ion job and within two or three days the commission will furnish the detailed report and the action will be taken against the encroachers at any cost. He clarified that in the reply to RTI he replied that the office do not possess the information regarding the encroachment but after getting report fro the said commission the picture will be clear that who and who have encroached the land and how much land is under the illegal possession of the encroachers.
