Tripura government to retrieve illegal land possession

A Correspondent

Agartala, June 20: Tripura government has decided to recover all Khash (government) land illegally occupied by individuals or organisations. The district magistrates have already been instructed to identify such lands.

In reply to a question in the State Assembly, Revenue Minister Narendra Chandra Debbarma said, “District magistrates have already initiated the process of identifying such illegally occupied lands. A notice will be issued shortly.”

He was responding to queries for members Dilip Das, Biswa Bandhu Sen and others. Das said,“Many development projects could not be undertaken in Barjala constituency, on the outskirts of Agartala, as some people continues to occupy large government lands.”

Biswa Bandhu Sen who was elected from the easternmost sub-division Dharmanagar said, “It is not only the state of Barjala.” Pointing to the previous Left Front government he said, “During last two decades, land mafias in league with the leaders of the previous ruling party and some government officials have encroached large quantity of lands.”

He said, “The law and order situation also deteriorated due to the activities of the land mafias. Several murders have also taken place in the last few years due to the rivalry between mafia groups but the government then took no action, instead utilized their services to suppress the opposition political parties”.

The Minister said, “The government is aware of these activities and proper action will be taken after investigation. It may be recalled that the government has already initiated action against political parties and their affiliated organizations that are illegally occupying government lands.”