RAWALPINDI, July 30: A private transport company has occupied about half of the land of Government Degree College for Women on Peshawar Road and stolen goods worth around one million rupees from the place, the college principal has alleged.

The transport company, which owns land adjacent to the college, is in dispute with the education department over ownership of the college land. It made several occupation attempts in the past but withdrew in the face of protesting students and teachers, Principal Parveen Qamar told this reporter. Now, the company has taken advantage of the summer vacation to break the boundary wall and park its buses on the disputed land.

Ms Qamar said the company’s staffers also broke open the locks of the college store, canteen and several other rooms and took away five computers, a refrigerator, furniture and study aids worth around one million rupees. The college records and necessary documents were also stolen, she further alleged.

The principal has written letters to the Punjab governor, district Nazim Tariq Kiani, District Coordination Officer Amjad Ali Toor and police high-ups to inform them of the occupation.

An education official alleged that the police were under pressure not to register the FIR against the transport company.

The company claims that the land has been leased out to it by the government of Punjab and that the college was illegally established there. It plans to station its buses at the site.

The college principal feared that the transport company would take over the whole college if it was not forced to leave.

The locals have expressed resentment over the aggressive move of the transport company. They fear that education of their children might be affected if the college is taken over by the transport company.

Meanwhile, the local leaders of the Punjab Professors and Lecturers Association have taken strong exception to the occupation of land, terming it a form of terrorism and threatening that they would resort to direct action if the education authorities failed to end the “illegal” occupation.

It is all because of the government apathetic attitude towards education, said an office-bearer of the association.

The owner of the transport company, Uzma Gul, when contacted in this regard, said the land belonged to the Punjab Transport Authority, which had leased it out to her for 10 years on February 23, 2000. The education authorities, she added, had been illegally occupying the land for the last two years. She accused the college principal of encroaching on her land.