Days before the urban local body elections in the state, the Uttar Pradesh government on Sunday issued an order, saying that it is now going to “run bulldozers” on all illegal encroachments on government lands, including parks and ponds in towns and cities.
The government has also directed all the urban bodies – Municipal Corporations, Nagar Palika Parishads and Nagar Panchayats – to identify illegal constructions and encroachments and take action as per the rules.
They have been also asked to ensure that information regarding encroachments is uploaded on the Anti Land Mafia Portal (IGRS portal).
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“The state government has already taken strict steps regarding illegal construction in the state. Land worth thousands of crore has been freed from the clutches of the land mafia. In this sequence, it has now been decided to free the government land from illegal construction by running this campaign in the urban bodies,” a government spokesperson said.
The order issued by the state government stated that every urban body is expected to identify such public lands, parks, ponds, and puddles in its jurisdiction that are currently encroached upon by the land mafia or others.
“All such government property should be freed from encroachment and necessary legal action should be taken against the illegal occupants. It should also be ensured that they are registered on the IGRS Portal (Anti Land Mafia Portal) with the help of the Revenue Department,” the spokesperson added.
The order added: “…that it will be the responsibility of every urban body to provide information related to its body to the Director, Directorate of Local Bodies, who will make this information available to the government”.
“It is worth mentioning that in order to remove encroachment from public land and to take effective action against illegal encroachers, the state Revenue Department has been running an anti-land mafia campaign since 2017. A four-level task force has also been constituted to review the anti-land mafia campaign at the state, divisional, district and tehsil levels,” said a statement issued by the government on Sunday.
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While Chief Secretary Durga Shankar Mishra is the chairman of the State-Level Anti Land Mafia Task Force, the principal secretary (Urban Development Department) along with other departments are members of this State-Level Anti Land Mafia Task Force.
From time to time, review meetings of the State-Level Anti-Land Mafia Task Force are held by the chief secretary and principal secretary of the Revenue Department.
In a recent review meeting of the State-Level Anti Land Mafia Task Force, it was found that the information about illegal encroachments and illegal occupants on public land in urban bodies is negligible on the Anti Land Mafia portal, an official said.
However, that is not enough for the brute strength of the state. It also needs to be put on display to consolidate the support of the faithful and instil fear in the hearts of the minority community. It must be a lesson for those who might think of protesting against the state or opposing its policies through mobilising mass demonstrations – they must fear that the next house to be demolished could be theirs. This can only be done if each demolition is publicised and converted into a public spectacle. The demolitions in UP (and elsewhere in other BJP-run states) have been telecast live by a pliant media – television, still cameras, reporters broadcasting live - which record the event and underline its theatrical effect. For the benefit of those who could not be eyewitnesses to the demolition, the footage is then repeated in prime-time TV discussions for days on end. This further amplifies the ideological message in which the majority community is expected to take pleasure in the pain of the minority, whose homes are being destroyed in blatant defiance of any sense of justice or human values. Without its theatrical effect, the demolition of homes means little and earns no political capital.
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