Anti-encroachment drive put off.

HARIPUR -- The tehsil municipal administration has put off the anti-encroachment campaign here.

The drive was launched last year, too, in urban and rural areas with the administration reclaiming several kanals of the government land from illegal occupants through demolition of boundary walls, shops and other structures.

However, it was stopped in Jan though notices were served on encroachers in the main bazaar and countryside areas and demolition squads were ready.

A former village council nazim of Ganja Kamala claimed the administration had succumbed to the pressure of influential illegal land occupants.

He said from Hattar Road to Ganja Kamala village, the road was 22 feet wide in the revenue records but the influential encroachers had reduced it to 13 feet only.

The former nazim said despite fixing time for the encroachments' removal in January, the assistant commissioner had put off the operation for reasons best known to him. He said land in the main bazaar and link roads was also encroached upon.

An official at the assistant commissioner's office claimed that the anti-encroachment drive had not been put off and instead, the coronavirus-induced lockdown had slowed it down.

He said the drive would be in full swing as soon as normalcy returned.

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