Govt. of Punjab launches anti-encroachment operation in Lahore

[LRE-Azan]

LAHORE: District Administration Lahore, Walled City of Lahore Authority (WCLA) and other allied departments have kicked off a massive anti-encroachment operation today across the city.

Chief Minister Usman Buzdar in a meeting last month had announced to launch the operation to retrieve the state land from mafia.

Sources told The News that land mafia is currently occupying thousands of kanals of land in the provincial capital, which includes 31,000 of Revenue Department, 636 of LDA [Lahore Development Authority] and 280 of Forests Department.

The Punjab government completed its plans for the drive along with the identification and demarcation of the encroached and occupied state land.

Lahore Deputy Commissioner Capt ® Anwar-ul-Haq also chaired a meeting of all allied departments to review their final preparation and execution plan on Monday morning. As per the report, District Administration Lahore is going to retrieve 31,687 kanal state land, 35 acre land of forest department, eight plots worth millions of Walled City, 636 kanal land of LDA, and 32 plots worth two billions of MCL.

The DC said that MCL, LDA, and Walled City Authority had already marked the encroached and occupied land and anti-encroachment cell has also been established at district level whose members would be DC, DIG operations and representatives of LDA and MCL. “There is also a plan to save the retrieved land from again occupation. Heavy machinery will also be used in the operation by two teams, each consisting of 40 officials, one team comprised of MCL and Walled City and other team consisted of MCL and LDA.

Rescue 1122 vehicle and Fire Brigade departments were also directed to be present on the spot along with police officials to avoid any untoward incident, the DC added.

The operation started from Sabzazar truck stand by team one and from Anarkali, Willingdon Road and Urdu Bazaar by another team.

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