AHMEDABAD: For the first time, the revenue department has ordered collectors across districts to impose the provisions of the Gujarat Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act against individuals and entities encroaching upon government land. The circular ordering the imposition of the act has also directed district collectors to ensure that civic services and electricity are denied with immediate effect to commercial or industrial units that have come up on government plots. The circular was issued on June 16.
The circular issued by revenue department’s deputy secretary (land) D R Bhammar states that circle officer in each district should be assigned the responsibility of a fixed number of government plots. A monthly report on the status of these plots — whether encroached or not — is to be collated by the collectors every month and submitted to the state government. The revenue officers (circle officers or mamlatdars) are to videograph the plots and fence them. “The videography will be the proof of the status of the land. The district collector should order inspections from time to time of these plots and if any encroachment is noticed, punitive action should be taken against the circle inspector and the mamlatdar,” the circular says.
