CM Murad Ali Shah sets time frames to clear irrigation department properties of encroachments

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has set time frames for the removal of encroachments from the provincial irrigation department’s properties, including embankments, headworks and drainage systems.

The chief executive took this decision during a meeting that he presided over at the CM House on Saturday to prepare a plan to remove encroachments from the irrigation department’s properties.

The meeting was attended by Irrigation Minister Suhail Anwar Siyal, CM’s law adviser Barrister Murtaza Wahab, Chief Secretary Mumtaz Ali Shah, Board of Revenue Senior Member Qazi Shahid Pervaiz, Advocate General Salman Talibuddin, CM’s Principal Secretary Sajid Jamal Abro, Irrigation Secretary Rafiq Buriro, Katchi Abadis Secretary Baqaullah Unar and others.

The meeting was told that the irrigation department’s infrastructure across the province included three barrages, 14 canals, 109 branch canals, 509 distributaries and 902 minors, with the total length of the embankments spread over 875 miles. The length of the drainage network has been measured at 837 miles.

The Sukkur Barrage Command area has 361 drains with a length of 1,909 miles. The Kotri Barrage Command area is 2,030 miles long with 361 drains. Some 110 drains of the Left Bank Outfall Drain are spread in the Sukkur and Kotri barrages with a length of 968 miles.

The Guddu Barrage Command area of the Ghotki Feeder has five drains with a length of 4,970 miles and the under-construction Right Bank Outfall Drain-II has a length of 170 miles.

The irrigation department also has some water reservoirs, such as the 50-square-kilometre Keenjhar Lake, the 100-square-kilometre Manchhar Lake and the 98km Chotiari Lake. The CM was told that out of the 142,225 encroachments on the irrigation department’s properties, 38,634 have been removed and the remaining 103,591 will also be cleared.

The CM constituted a committee comprising the Board of Revenue senior member, the irrigation secretary, the forests secretary and the Katchi Abadis secretary to identify encroached government land and suggest measures to vacate them.

Top court’s orders

On December 30 the Supreme Court had ordered the Sindh Board of Revenue to ensure that all encroached lands, including that of irrigation and forest departments, were recovered within a month and restored to their original position.

Hearing the application about the computerisation of revenue record in Sindh, the SC’s three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Pakistan (CJP) Justice Gulzar Ahmed observed that despite the computerisation of land record, dozens of cases were filed daily over fake documentation of properties.

The court observed that officials of the revenue department were involved in forging land documents by keeping parallel records. CJP Ahmed observed that the removal of encroachments from government lands was the responsibility of the revenue department and said the whole of Karachi had been developed on encroached government land.

The court observed that high-rises have been constructed on encroached government lands at the Super Highway ahead of University Road where boundary walls have been raised by encroachers.

Board of Revenue Senior Member Pervaiz filed a report about the reconstruction of the record of property rights burnt after the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in December 2007. He submitted that the Board of Revenue carried out detailed verification of entries, which were not in consonance with the microfilming record of 1984-85.

He submitted that the Board of Revenue has decided to block 237,597 such entries in the provincial record cell. They have also decided to put restriction notes on all of them and to conduct suo motu proceedings against them under Section 164 of the Sindh Land Revenue Act.

He submitted that the blocking of suspicious entries of the Karachi Division was in progress where 62 dehs out of 102 dehs have been blocked and the Karachi commissioner has been asked to undertake suo motu proceedings.

He submitted that encroachments on government lands could not be stopped, but revenue officials were taking actions against encroachments and the Malir deputy commissioner has cleared 1,000 acres of government land of encroachments.

The court directed the Board of Revenue to submit the details of the reclaimed government lands and ensure that all encroached lands are cleared and restored to their original state in which they existed prior to encroachment.

The court ordered that all amenity lands, playgrounds and green belts encroached be restored to parks and no further encroachment be allowed. The bench also ordered clearing all lands of forest and irrigation departments of encroachments, cancelling their forged documents and undertaking plantation there.

The court ordered to continue the anti-encroachment drive and told the Board of Revenue senior member to file a compliance report within one month. The court also directed the additional advocates general of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to submit reports on the completion of revenue records in their respective provinces.