Jammu forest land under encroachment, probe ordered: SVC

Jammu, Aug 4: The State Vigilance Commission (SVC) claimed to have exposed encroachment of over 54 acres of land in Jammu forests by some persons in "connivance" with revenue and forest officials and directed the State Vigilance organisation (SVO) to probe into it.

The SVC directed the SVO to conclude the probe in a time bound manner. The State Vigilance organisation, which held a preliminary inquiry into the case, submitted its prima-facie investigation report to SVC, saying about 374 kanals (54 acres) of state forest land in Mahamaya forest area in Dwada (Jammu) have been encroached by some persons in an alleged connivance and conspiracy with revenue and forest officials of the area, an SVC official said.

The report also said that the public servants concerned fraudulently manipulated revenue records to facilitate some identified private persons for encroachment of state the forest land by gross misuse of their official powers, thereby causing huge loss to the state exchequer.

PTI