Greater Noida launches audit to reclaim encroached land
This report will inform the authority’s land department about the amount of government land available in Greater Noida
The Greater Noida authority has launched an extensive audit to reclaim government land in villages, which has been encroached upon, officials said on Sunday. This ongoing audit, launched on June 1, aims to repurpose the recovered land for various developmental projects.
The move to start the land audit came after the Greater Noida authority chief executive officer Ravi Kumar NG realized that significant portions of government land acquired from farmers over the past two decades had been encroached upon, hindering development. “Our team, after the survey, found that at least 23 acres of government land was encroached upon in Khairpur Gurjar village alone. If we had not carried out the survey, this land would have continued to be misused. Now we have decided to use a large part of this land for carving out residential plots on it. We will allot residential plots for the farmers under the rehabilitation package. Also, we will sell some part of the land meant for institutional usage to collect revenue,” said Ravi Kumar NG.
As of now, the authority has completed the audit in three villages: Kairpur Gurjar, Saini, and Kyampur. Officials stated that audits in other villages will commence once the team is available. Teams comprising officers on special duty, tehsildars, and other officials are conducting village-wise surveys.
The ground survey in Saini and Kyampur villages is also complete, and the team is expected to submit a report soon, officials said. This report will inform the authority’s land department about the amount of government land available and needing to be freed from encroachment, they added. Following the completion of the survey and report, the authority will deploy teams, along with police and bulldozers, to reclaim the land.
Established in 1991, the Greater Noida authority’s mandate includes acquiring land for industrial, infrastructure, and residential development. It notified around 38,000 hectares of agricultural land from 124 villages for the development of the industrial town, officials said. Despite acquiring large chunks of agricultural land, encroachments by the local land mafia have caused substantial losses to the government, they added.
“We do not have exact numbers before the land audit is done in all villages, but in each village, our acquired land is grabbed. We have decided to first identify it by the land department teams and then free the same because we need land for different purposes, particularly to allot residential plots to the farmers. We are taking one village at a time, and we hope to complete the audit work as soon as possible,” said Ravi Kumar NG.
Approximately 3,000 farmers are still awaiting residential plots in exchange for their land acquired for developmental purposes, according to Greater Noida authority’s rough estimation. The farmers have been protesting against the authority, demanding their plots, officials said. A group of farmers has been staging protests for about a month, disrupting developmental work, they added.
“Farmers’ residential plot problems will be resolved soon because we are arranging the land to carve out the plots for them,” assured the Greater Noida authority.