LAHORE, Feb 19: Around 84,000 acres of the state land in the Punjab is in the possession of illegal occupants and litigation is going on for more than 44,000 acres.

A meeting of executive district officers (revenue) from across the province was informed here on Wednesday. The meeting was convened on the direction of colonies minister Manazir Ali Ranjha, who was in the chair, to collect latest data on state land in each district of the province.

The minister had given the EDOs a month to collect all the relevant record in this regard.

The meeting was informed that lease period of most of the state land leased out to individuals or institutions had ended, but they had not surrendered to the treasury.

It was also informed that some institutions had got pieces of state land for initiating public welfare projects, but they started using it for commercial purposes by building shops and plazas on it in various districts, violating the laws.

The meeting noted it with concern that more than 44,000 acres were held up in litigation process due to disinterest shown by the officials in pursuing the cases.

Mr Ranjha told the meeting that the chief minister had directed that all land, whether residential or agricultural, under the occupation of land grabbers must be vacated and allotted to the shelterless. The allotment policy would be formulated later.

He said no individual or institution would be allowed to take illegal benefit of the land earmarked for public welfare projects.

He told the officers that those abiding by rules while working in the department would be provided protection, but the corrupt and dishonest officials would be taken to task.

He said a comprehensive policy was being framed for transfer of patwaris to end insecurity among them about the tenure of their posting at a station.

He also said work was being done to overcome the difficulties created by the devolution plan.

Member colonies Javed Aslam directed the EDOs to complete mutation work early in their respective districts. He said the colonies minister and other high officials of the department would start visiting districts to check their performance after a month.