RAWALPINDI, July 5: Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi has directed the district coordination officer (DCO) to remove encroachments from the provincial government’s land at Loi Bhir within one month, sources in the revenue department told Dawn here on Saturday.

“On Saturday, the DCO received an official letter from the chief minister wherein he has been directed to constitute a team to demarcate the government land at Loi Bhir and point out encroachments by various housing schemes there, simultaneously,” the sources added.

They said the chief minister had taken a serious notice of the dilly dallying of the revenue department in demarcation of the Punjab government land in the area that was delaying the launching of the long-awaited housing scheme for the low and middle income segments by the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA). “Now the CM has given one-month deadline to the DCO for removal of all encroachments,” the sources said.

Few months back, the revenue department had constituted a team of Patwaris and Tehsildars concerned for demarcation of the land in the backdrop of the reported encroachment by the National Police Foundation (NPF) on more than 1,000 Kanals of land there.

However, according to the sources, the revenue department shelved the matter by keeping that the alleged encroachment had been committed on the land of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and not that of the Punjab forest department.

But in reality, no formal demarcation process was carried out. “That was an informal team. While, some of the Patwaris had not even visited the site,” an official of the revenue department told this reporter.