Siliguri: Process to reclaim encroached govt land begins

Siliguri: The Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad and Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) have started the process to reclaim government land that has been encroached. The Siliguri Municipal Corporation began a survey of encroached government property from Monday.

“We have already started to reclaim the land from Friday. We have reclaimed a lot of land in different blocks of the Mahakuma Parishad. The work is going on in cooperation with the administration. No one will be spared. The work will continue until we completely reclaim our land,” said Arun Ghosh, Sabhadhipati of Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad.

Ranjan Sarkar, Deputy Mayor of SMC, said: “We have started a survey of government land. We already have vending committees who are conducting the survey.”

Recently, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had expressed dissatisfaction over government land encroachment in this region. Thereafter, the administration geared up and started recovering encroached lands.

According to the Land and Land Reform department of Darjeeling district, a total of 82 acres of land in four blocks of Phansidewa, Kharibari, Naxalbari and Matigara of Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad area have been encroached. To reclaim the land, three-member committees have been formed in each block.

The committees comprise BLRO; OC of the local police station and the DLRO.

Sources said that most government land has been occupied in Naxalbari Block. About 30 acres of government land has been encroached in that block; 19 acres in Kharibari Block; 21 acres in Matigara and 12 acres in Phansidewa Block.

“From Friday till now, about 70 acres of land has been reclaimed by the Mahakuma Parishad,” said Ghosh. Biplab Halder, BLRO of Naxalbari Block, said: “The government lands were surveyed following the instructions of the Chief Minister. Strict legal action will be taken against those who have engaged in land encroachments. After recovering these lands, we are putting government boards on the land.”

The SMC has also started listing encroached lands and actions will be taken after the survey. The SMC continued its drive against illegal construction. On Monday, they demolished an illegal construction at Ward 42 in SMC as per the instructions given by the High Court. A huge police force was deployed in the area.