KHANEWAL, July 15: The state owned land/property worth Rs4 billion has been illegally occupied by 37,980 people and the district administration has initiated an action against such usurpers, Revenue EDO Abdul Rashid Razi told a meeting chaired by DCO Qazi Muhammad Ashfaq here on Tuesday.

The EDO said the department had started inspecting revenue records and legal action against eight of its officials was in the pipeline.

He said that criminal cases would be registered against eight revenue officials while special teams consisting of revenue officials had been formed to retrieve the possession of the state land.

The participants of the meeting were told that action was also being taken on 33 public complaints received through Prime Minister’s Secretariat, Chief Minister’s Secretariat and other institutions.

DCO Qazi Ashfaq directed the revenue department to work hard for the uplift of the masses as per instructions of the chief secretary and the chief minister besides achieving the revenue collection targets.

He instructed the civil defence department to be ready to deal with expected floods. The DCO also directed Community Development EDO Chaudhry Maqsood to compile audit of citizens’ community boards.