December 14, 2007	Friday	Zilhaj 3, 1428

LAHORE, Dec 13: More than 1,300 acres of Pakistan Railways land is under illegal occupation in Lahore division which the department plans to retrieve through an anti-encroachment drive it has already launched from the Lahore Cantonment Station.

“We will take back every inch of the railways land,” says Shakeel Ahmed, property and land director.

He said the anti-encroachment squad, backed by civil as well district police, was removing illegal structures raised at the railways’ land near Kot Lakhpat.

He said in the first phase of the drive commercial structure would be razed and in the second phase residential encroachments would be demolished. He was, however, not clear when the second phase would begin. Mr Ahmed said that any clean-up drive in the residential areas could spark protests which the caretaker government could not afford.

Without giving break-up of the encroached land, Rizwan Cheema, deputy director of the land and property, said 1367.58 acres, both the commercial and residential, had been encroached upon in the Lahore division of the Pakistan Railways. He claimed that so far 260 acres had been retrieved in the operation.

However, the ground realities mock the claims of the railways authorities as pens and parking lots removed by the squad on Wednesday became functional again on Thursday.

When the attention of Mr Ahmed was drawn to this fact, he said the department would launch a `follow-up programme’ so that the encroachment did not emerge again.

Inspectors of works are primarily responsible for protecting the lands. Once any piece of land is encroached upon, the inspectors are supposed to report to railways police or district police, depending upon the location of the land, and get it vacated.

The railway officials, however, had no information if the department had ever taken any action against inspectors for letting encroachers take hold of the land.

The value of the encroached PR land throughout the country is worth several billions. The department, already facing losses, can improve its workings by leasing or using the land effectively.