Shimla, Dec 8 (PTI) The Himachal High Court today orderedauthorities to remove all encroachments from forest land inexcess of one acre.
The court said "it shall be the personal responsibilityof office bearers/officers, irrespective of their rank andfile, of Gram Panchayat, Gram Sabha, Panchayat Samiti, ZilaParishad and employees/officials of the forest, revenue andpolice departments to ensure that the orders passed by thecourt are complied with in letter and spirit".
A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice SanjayKarol and Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan passed the ordersdisposing a bunch of petitions related to encroachments onforest land.
The court in an earlier order had asked authorities todisconnect the electricity and water connections provided toall illegal structures on government land.
It directed the principal chief conservator of forest toplace on record the half-yearly report submitted by the ForestGuards with respect to the number of encroachments.
The court also directed the state government, the forestdepartment and the deputy commissioners to submit reportsregarding recovery of undue profit made by the encroachers.
It also directed them to use drones to keep a watch onthe encroached areas and detect new cases of encroachment.
The court directed the authorities to file a compliancereport, clearly stating the action taken by them. PTI PCLABH.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.