TALUQAN (SW) – The Independent Directorate of Land in Takhar informed the provincial administration about encroachment of some 240 jeribs of land in the province last month.
The letter, which is available to Salam Watandar, states that 240 jeribs of state land have been seized by Sayed Kheiruddin, mayor of Dasht-e-Qala, district executive director and engineers of the district municipality in the past two months, and are now busy constructing houses over this land.
The letter noted that the municipality administration has been seizing state land on the pretext of distribution among displaced people of the Rustaq district.
Bashir Ahmad Bashar, a civil activist in Dasht-e-Qala district, told SW the officials from local administration and land mafia have been taking advantage of the war and insecurity to sell the state property.
Residents of the district said that the arbitrary distribution and usurpation of state lands in the district have been going on for past three years, during which hundreds of acres of state land have been sold in different parts of the district. But, this trend has increased in recent months because of the intensity of the war.
Despite repeated calls, Sayed Khairuddin, mayor of Dasht-e-Qala refused to talk to SW.
However, Naqibullah, the district's executive director, denied any connection with the case. He said the mayor has distributed 118 plots among the displaced people of the district of Rustaq, according to the decree of the Presidential Palace.
But, Abdulman Feizi, district governor, has said that the technical work of this decree has not yet been finalized.
In another letter, signed in December by Fareed Zaki, deputy governor of Takhar, officials have been directed not to distribute state-land.
ENDS
