A senior police officer has managed to lay his hands on a huge plot of land belonging to the custodian department in the outskirts of the summer capital of the state.
Despite the fact that the police officer holding the rank of Additional Director General (ADG) belongs to a well off family, the custodian department still chose him and showered ‘favour’ on him. The department has allotted around three kanals of custodian land to the police officer at Ishbar-Nishat.
Reports said that men and machinery was pressed into service by the police officer so as to take over the possession of the plot of land. Machinery including JCB was put into use for demarcating the land allotted to the police officer. The whole plot of land has been covered by tin sheets much to the surprise of locals.
The police officer had tried his best to get the allotment of the plot of land in January this year, but the same could not materialize due to the strong resentment of the locals. The strong protest by the locals ensured that a team that had reached to take over the possession of land at that time had to leave without any success.
“Last time around the locals assembled at Ishbar and raised slogans against the state government. The locals raised a banner of revolt against the state administration for allotting the custodian land to the police officer. However, this time around the police officer managed to get the allotment of the land much to the discomfiture of the common masses,” said sources.
Sources said that custodian department allotted two Kanals and 18 Marlas of land to the officer elevated not long ago to the rank of ADGP. The locals had said that they would not allow the plot of land to be handed over to the police officer. They said that plot of land is being used by them for multiple reasons.
“The plot of land is used as a playground by the youth with many sports events being organized there from time to time. As no sports field is available to the youth of the Ishbar and many other adjoining areas, the plot of land was used by them for different sports activities,” said sources.
It has been observed that the state government places hurdles in the allotment of custodian land to a commoner while as on the other hand benefits are showered on influential as well as blue-eyed persons. This dual policy of the people at helm has led to anger among the people who have no recommendation whatsoever.
It would be in place to mention here that allegations have also come to the fore that a district level police officer has been allotted a plot of land belonging to the custodian department in one of the posh areas of Srinagar. The police officer has already taken possession of land despite the fact that same would fetch crores of rupees to the department given the prevalent market rates.
