DADU, Dec 8: A rift has started between the district police, the forest department and private persons over possession of 3,000 acres in the Katcho area.
The police department asked the private persons on Monday to vacate the land, located near the police stations in the Katcho area, within three days or face the consequence.
On the other hand, the forest department claimed that the land belongs to it.
The inhabitants of the Katcho belt have been cultivating 3,000 acres since the last 30 years. This land is close to the police stations of Jhallo, Aminani, Moundar, Fareedabad, Budhapur, Unarpur, Khanote, etc.
On Monday, the district police, Dadu, asked the people of these areas through the SHOs concerned to vacate the land or face police action.
POLICE: The DPO, Dadu, Ali Akbar Bhangwar, told newsmen that President Gen Pervez Musharraf had announced to allot this land to 40 police stations of the Katcha area some three years back but some influential people had occupied it.
He said that if they did not vacate the land within three days, an operation would be launched against them and they would be arrested and cases would be registered against them.
He confirmed that he had issued instructions to the SHOs of the police stations concerned to inform all the encroachers accordingly.
FOREST DEPT: On being contacted, the divisional forest officer, Dadu, Anwar Baloch, said that some 3,000 acres was occupied by the police department in the Katcha area. He rejected the claims of the police department saying that the land belonged to the forest department.
He said that he had informed senior officials about the situation in writing.
Sahib Khan Chandio, resident of Karam Ali Chandio village, said that he and 50 other villagers were cultivating about 200 acres within the limits of the Jhallo police station and all the villagers were paying tax to the forest department according to the rules but now the police had arrested three villagers and threatened them to vacate the land or they would be implicated in false cases.
He said that the villagers had been cultivating the land since the last 30 years with the permission of the forest department and they had the relevant documents to prove it.
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