KARACHI, Jan 27: The Keamari town nazim has termed illegal occupation of government land in the town one of the most pressing problems that needed immediate attention of the authorities concerned.

Commenting on Sindh governor’s recent decision of taking action against land mafia, Town Nazim Humayun Khan said that the town administration would fully support all efforts in reclaiming the government’s land.

Mr Khan stressed the need for proper documentation of government land as according to him, fake documents were issued to fictitious land owners; saying that the municipal administration had identified encroached lands to the agencies concerned a number of times.

He claimed that anti-encroachment drives launched by the town administration produced positive results as government’s land worth millions of rupees had been reclaimed. On the directives of the city nazim, the TMA is making all-out efforts to end occupation of land mafia along the beaches, he added.

A survey of the area shows that land-related disputes in the town are the major problems due to the absence of a clear-cut land allotment policy and demarcation of land owned by villagers since centuries.

A number of people with the connivance of officials concerned had obtained fake documents and occupied valuable government property.

Not only that, vast areas of mangrove sites on the sea were destroyed and being used for commercial purposes by the land mafia.

Although a significant portion of the town’s land comes under the KPT and revenue department and it is the responsibility of these agencies to protect the government land, these agencies have utterly failed to protect public property.