BAHAWALNAGAR: The members of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Tiger Force in Minchinabad have accused the local administration of not taking action against powerful land grabbers despite repeated complaints.

On the condition of anonymity, some of the ‘Tigers’ alleged that around 70 acres of land worth around Rs50 million had been grabbed and later cultivated by these influential persons in Bairwali Union Council. They said seven acres of agricultural land located on Mandi Sadiq Ganj-McLeod Ganj road had also been grabbed.

They told Dawn that they had complained about the land grab to Minchinabad Assistant Commissioner (AC) Muzammil Ilyas soon after he took charge about two months ago, but he took no action against the land grabbers who harvested the crops cultivated there illegally without any fear.

They also accused the administration of showing lower yield from the agriculture land that had been retrieved. They alleged that the average yield was 45 to 50 maund per acre in the area, and the officials concerned showed less yield in the record, causing a huge loss to the exchequer.

Some Tiger Force members alleged that the information they had shared with the officials concerned about the grabbed land was leaked to the land mafia. They alleged the administration struck a deal with the land grabbers instead of taking action against them.

They demanded Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and Prime Minister Imran Khan to take notice of the matter and order action against the grabbers and the officials concerned.

Moreover, citizens, including Noorul Islam, Usman Mumtaz Paracha and Saed Ahmed Ghuri also alleged that despite Punjab government’s orders, the crackdown on land grabbers was being carried out at a snail’s pace in Minchinabad tehsil.

They also alleged that more than five kanals of state land belonging to the Irrigation department located in Mauza Badri Narainpura had been encroached upon for several years. They said a revenue team visited the aforementioned land on April 19, but the land could not be retrieved. This emboldened the land grabbers, who started construction there the very next day, they added.

On April 20, Patwari Sattar and Gurdawar Ali Sher, stated their job was to only demarcate the irrigation department land, and now it was the duty of the AC concerned to take further action.

However,on April 21, an official in Minchinabad AC office told this scribe that they were under political pressure. He claimed that the AC had written a letter to the irrigation department, asking it to retrieve the land. However, sources in the irrigation department said no such letter had been received yet.

A local social activist, Ghiasuddin Haqqani, alleged that despite the court orders, the local revenue officials failed to retrieve the three kanal land of Sabzi Mandi worth millions for the last two and a half months. He alleged that 1,272 kanals of the provincial government and 206 kanal land of the municipal committee had also been grabbed by the powerful land mafia in connivance with the local administration.

AC Muzammil Ilyas, however, termed the allegations false, claiming action was being taken against the land grabbers without any discrimination.

Published in Dawn, May 5th, 2021