MANSEHRA: A local court has ordered the district administration and revenue department to produce records to identify encroachments on Kashmir Road here.

A group of Kashmir Road traders had moved the court of additional district and sessions judge Tahir Aurangzeb last week after the district administration issued final notices to them for the voluntary removal of encroachments by shops and business centres to prevent crackdown.

The judge ordered the relevant officials of both district administration and revenue department to appear before him on Sept 24 with the relevant records.

Traders claim to own land where their shops stand

The traders, who had moved the court against the proposed anti-encroachment campaign, claimed that their shops and business centres weren’t built on the government’s land.

“Our shops and business centres stand on the land owned by us. We haven’t occupied even a single inch of government property. The proposed anti-encroachment drive is in fact an attempt of the administration to seize our land,” trader Abid Ali told reporters here.

He said a commission formed by the court in 2016 to determine the exact width of Kashmir Road had declared that the traders hadn’t encroached on the road.

WATER SUSPENSION: Taking note of the suspension of water supply to fields in Upper Siren and Ichar canals, the district administration has warned if will act against the irrigation department if water supply isn’t restored immediately.

Deputy commissioner Mohammad Zubair issued an order in this respect.

The growers had complained about the closure of canals for many weeks and demanded the immediate restoration of water supply to them.

The deputy commissioner summoned the district head of the irrigation department to his office and ordered him to immediately restore water from both irrigation channels to farmers.

He said the suspension of water supply had adversely affected over 16,000 kanals of land.

“If these water channels aren’t reopened without delay, I will take strict action against the relevant officials,” he said.

The deputy commissioner also ordered the revenue collectors (patwaris) to visit both channels to check the restoration of water supply and report to him.

Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2018