LAHORE, Oct 1: The Punjab Forest Department has instructed the divisional forest officer (DFO) of Bhakkar range management to meet the Sargodha commissioner and record his statement as part of an inquiry into illegal allotment of the department's 2,000 acres to agriculture and forestry graduates by the district officer revenue (DOR).

Seeking anonymity, the officer said that according to the criteria of the scheme, only the jobless and young graduates in agriculture, forestry, livestock, animal husbandry or veterinary disciplines were eligible to get the land owned by the Punjab government and District Forest Department.

“In case a candidate is in government or private service and desires to obtain the land (25 acres), he will have to resign from his service and present a copy of resignation to the allotment authorities so that he can focus on cultivation of the land.

“But we have been reported that the DOR allotted the land to 80 graduates in total, who include 24 aged government servants who are still on job,” the official said.

He said various CM's schemes to allot state land to the landless cultivators and young graduates could help eliminate poverty in the province.

Bhakkar DFO Nawaz Sandheela told this reporter that he tried hard to convince the DOR about the issue but he ignored the policy, rules and regulations by allotting the provincial forest land. “I also wrote some letters to stop the DOR from doing so but to no avail,” he added.

He said his superiors had instructed him to appear before the commissioner and record the department's point of view immediately so that the inquiry officer could not finalise the report without taking their version.

“Yes, I came to know that 23 or 24 government servants had got the land under this scheme. But I have already ordered the DOR not to give possession of the land to such candidates besides cancellation of their allotments,” Sargodha Division Commissioner Jawad Rafique Malik informed this reporter.

He said the Bhakkar district administration had identified new land for the candidates (excluding the in-service employees) who earlier got the provincial forests land under this scheme. “We have also sent a report to the Board of Revenue for allotting the newly-identified land to the graduates by returning the previous land to the Punjab Forests Department,” the commissioner said.