More than 1500 hectares of Rly land under encroachment

New Delhi, Nov 29 (UNI) The Government today told the Lok Sabha that out of a total holding of approximately 4.31 lakh hectares of land only about 1575 hectares of Railway land was under encroachment which included areas along the tracks as well near the stations.

Replying to a question, Minister of State for Railways R Vellu said over 1.4 lakh people were involved in this encroachment and 28,530 people had been evicted, resulting in the recovery of nearly 500.17 hectares of land.

He said the biggest problem faced by the Ministry in the eviction process was the outdated law and a committee was being set up to amend it.

Responding to another question, Mr Vellu said people running some petty business from railway land were mostly not evicted if they formed a cooperative.

UNI