The Gujarat High Court’s first division bench of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and justice Vipul Pancholi has instructed the assistant government pleader on Wednesday to take instructions from the Surendranagar district collector on whether the allegations of the encroachment of grazing land for last 10 years has any substance.
It was hearing a petition of agriculturists from Surendranagar district who approached the high court with a prayer to get around 200 acre of Gauchar (grazing) land free from encroachment by politically and financially powerful persons.
After hearing the primary submission over the PIL moved by Zala Digvijaysinh and others from Raisangpur village through advocate SM Chudasama and Bhunesh Rupera, the court also noted that if the collector finds the allegation of encroachment to be true, whether the administration has any plan to get the land evacuated. Further hearing on the matter has been kept for October 11.
The petition alleged that around 30 politically and financially powerful persons of the village have encroached 200-acre gauchar land, earmarked by the government for 3,120 livestock in the village, for last 10 years. Though the petitioner and other villagers had raised the issue with Taluka Development Officer (TDO) and the district collector to remove the encroachment, no concrete action has been taken to free the land from encroachment.
It was further alleged that though the TDO and the district collector had issued notices to the village talati and sarpanch in 2015 to remove encroachment, no action has been taken till date.
The plea
The petition alleged that around 30 politically and financially powerful people in the village have encroached the 200-acre gauchar land, earmarked by the government for 3,120 livestock in the village for the last 10 years.
