Upper Chitral residents reject land settlement survey

BOONI: The recent land settlement survey in Upper Chitral was conducted by the revenue department staff keeping the local people in the dark and hence is not acceptable.

This was stated by Tehreek Huqooq-e-Awam leader Muhammad Pervez Lal in a statement on Wednesday.

He said before the survey the revenue staff should have met the landowners and brief them. Moreover, during the survey, the locals should have been taken along in the field.

But the survey officials conducted the process on their own and documented one person’s property in the name of another.

Besides, shamilat eg community land and riverbeds were declared as state property. He said in many areas rivers have changed its courses, destroyed private properties and were now flowing in private land.

But without keeping these facts, the survey team completed its work declaring the riverbeds as state land.

This will create lots of complications not only for the government but also for the locals.

He said the Tehreek would soon announce a plan to launch a protest against the unilateral survey carried out by the government department which if not corrected would deprive people of their properties.