DEHRADUN: CM Pushkar Singh Dhami on Friday said the Uttarakhand government has freed 5,000 acres of land encroached in the state through "
land jihad
".
While attending a 'Ram katha' in Delhi's IP Extension, Dhami said, "For the betterment of the
Himalayan state
we had to take some tough decisions, an important one being removing
encroachments
from
government lands
. We were successful in freeing land by getting rid of land jihad and the drive shall continue till all illegal and
forceful possessions
are removed."
Following repeated complaints of encroachment on government land, the chief minister had directed the state police and forest department to identify all illegal structures. According to data provided by the state government, till May 2023, a total of 3,793 such locations were identified by the state authorities. The maximum number of encroachments with over 1,433 were found in Nainital district followed by 1,149 in Haridwar district. While Chamoli had 423
illegal structures
, other districts with high numbers include Tehri (209), Almora (192) and Champawat (97). Majority of the encroachments were on forest land.
Since the launch of an anti-encroachment drive earlier this year, close to 500 'mazars' (tomb shrines) and around 50 temples have been demolished in the state.
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