Yogi government's crackdown on land mafias continues

Lucknow: The zero tolerance policy of the Yogi government against land mafias has been reaping results ever since its inception in 2017 and so far, over 67,000 hectares of land has been freed from illegal possession.

Besides developing an Anti Land Mafia Portal, land mafia task forces have also been constituted in all the districts of the state to ensure quick redressal of the complaints received on the portal and over 2.87 Lakh complaints have been successfully disposed of since May 2017.

"During the campaign, 22,838 cases related to the revenue department and 814 civil suits were registered and 4,210 FIRs were lodged against land mafias. Over 2,300 land encroachers were identified as land mafias and 182 have been sent to jail," an official informed. After receiving a complaint, the anti land mafia task force reaches the spot and after freeing the land from illegal encroachment, it is handed over to the department concerned, he added.

Lands belonging to the irrigation, education, PWD, forest and other government departments were a soft target of land mafias for a long time and after an option was provided to register complaints online, the government received as many as 2,88,745 complaints.

Along with government lands, the task force also takes action on the complaints of encroachments on private lands and the complaint portal also has the option for making a complaint without divulging the identity of the complainant.

"Besides registering a complaint, the portal also provides the facility to seek information regarding the action taken on the complaint, monitor the action and give a feedback," the official informed.

It is also to be mentioned that under the ongoing operation, the police have seized and razed the properties of a number of mafias including Atiq Ahmed, Mukhtar Ansari, Yogesh Bhadora, Ramesh Pradhan, Badan Singh, Sundar Bhati, Vijay Mishra etc, and as many as 17 mafias including liquor, cattle and education mafias have been identified and marked by the authorities for further action.