Daily Times

Following the Chief Minister (CM), Khyber Pakhtunkhwaa (KP), directives to remove all the illegal encroachments, the Swat district administration here on Monday kicked off an anti-encroachment drive across the district.

In the first round of the drive, decades old constructions done by land mafia on governmental property were raised to the ground. As many as dozens of illegal constructions erected were level to the ground in Bahrain tehsil of Swat district. In Bahrain tehsil, most of the demolished buildings were either hotels or restaurants built on the land of Swat river.

In Babuzai tehsil too several buildings marked as illegal were demolished. In Babuzai tehsil, encroachment drives mostly involved demolishing illegal constructions on either side of the Swat river.

The encroachment drive was carried out by the district administration in which officials of the irrigation department were also present. A large number of police contingent was covering the drive to thwart any untoward incident.

The second round of the drive is due and is likely to focus on the other tehsil of the district where land mafia has been active for quite some time and has occupied government land illegally.

Meanwhile, Mehmud Khan, KP CM, has said, the district administration had been empowered to demolish all the encroachment that it felt were illegal.

“The drive to level all the illegal buildings erected on state owned property will be erased,” Khan said, adding that no one was above the law and the drive would go on till all the encroachments are removed.

He also said that Swat was prone to floods and that encroachments on either side of the Swat river almost doubled the losses to both public and private property and to safeguard them, indiscriminate encroachment drive was indispensable.