Lagatar24 Desk
Ranchi: The Home Department has finalised a Standard Operating Procedure to curb illegal land occupation by land mafias and sent it to the Chief Minister for approval. A resolution in this regard will be issued once the Chief Minister gives his consent.
HC’s Suo Motu Order Prompted the SOP
The SOP has been prepared in compliance with an order passed by the Jharkhand High Court, which had taken suo motu cognisance of illegal land encroachment. A bench of Chief Justice SM Sonak and Justice Rajesh Shankar treated illegal land occupation as a serious issue, directed the government to prepare an SOP, and gave six weeks for its implementation. The government had presented a draft SOP before the court, following which the Home Department finalised it and sent it to the Chief Minister.
Second Time HC Has Ordered Such an SOP
This is the second instance of the High Court directing the preparation of an SOP to tackle land encroachment. Earlier, a bench led by Justice Kailash Prasad Dev had issued a similar order while hearing the bail petition of Chandradip, who was arrested for illegal occupation of government land in Bokaro district. Following that order, the Land Revenue Department held a high-level meeting on October 19, 2020, attended by the Chief Secretary, Director General of Police, Principal Secretary Law, Principal Secretary Forest, and Land Revenue Secretary.
Key Decisions From the 2020 High-Level Meeting
Several important decisions were taken at that meeting, including uploading details of all restricted government and forest land on the NGDRS portal to prevent illegal buying and selling, uploading ownership details of land acquired by various state government departments through Deputy Commissioners, uploading details of all protected and reserved forest land on NGDRS, ensuring display boards on all government-owned land, expediting disposal of cases related to encroachment and illegal transactions, and strengthening record rooms to safeguard land documents.
