LASHKARGAH/ HERAT CITY (SW): In the ongoing land reclamation drive, authorities in Helmand and Herat provinces said to have reclaimed thousands of acres of state property from the land mafia.
Local officials in Herat province told Salam Watandar that they regain some 90 percent of the land that was previously usurped by the land mafia in the past years.
Mohamed Ibrahim Mahbob, Director at the Directorate of Land Registration, said that exactly 64,069 jeribs of state property have been reclaimed in the outskirt of major cities and districts across the province. He charged influential individuals for the crime.
Jilani Farhad, director media relations in the province, said in this regard that the province leads the anti-land mafia drive in the country. This comes at a time when the President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani has directed all provincial authorities to expedite land reclamation drive.
Saeed Ghulam Rahmani, director at the provincial Justice department, confirmed that a total of 22110 jeribs of land have been returned to its rightful owners. Without naming the culprits, he said that the culprits have been fined worth millions of dollars.
Also, in southern Helmand province, authorities have claimed to have made significant progress in terms of land reclamation.
Haji Tayab, director at the Helmand Justice department said in an interview with Salam Watandar that out of some 120 thousand jeribs of usurped land, around 17 thousand jeribs have been reclaimed. He noted that influential individuals, including politicians are involved in grabbing state land.
A number of the Helmand's provincial council members, believe the land mafia has grown stronger that there is no free land available to build schools upon.
Based on the findings of "Afghan Freedom House", one million, 954 thousand and 245 jeribs of land have been usurped in 18 provinces. According to the report, about 16 thousand of the people are involved in land grabbing, each has usurped between 10 to one hundred thousand jeribs of the land.
The report stated that most lands were usurped in Kabul, Herat, Balkh, Kandahar, Nangarhar, Kunduz, Kapisa, Baghlan, Takhar, Nimroz, Khost, Logar and Ghazni provinces while the trend is less common in Nuristan, Daikundi, Paktika, Ghor and Panjsher provinces.
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