Tamil Nadu's Rs 50-crore fund to retrieve, fence encroached government land

CHENNAI: The State government has created a Government Lands Retrieval and Protection Fund of Rs 50 crore to be used for removing encroachments from government land and protecting it with fences. According to a recent G.O. issued by the revenue department, tahsildars, RDOs, and district collectors are empowered to use the fund.

The move is aimed at easing the burden on revenue officials who are forced to use their own money for removing such encroachments. The State government had drawn flak from the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India and the Madras High Court over its inability to prevent and remove encroachments on waterbodies and government land. 

The 2019 CAG report stated that about 2 lakh hectares of the 29.03 lakh hectares of government land in Tamil Nadu was under encroachment.

Notably, over 25 per cent of government land in Chennai (excluding areas annexed by the city corporation in 2011) was in the hands of encroachers, and around 2 per cent of government land in the undivided Tirunelveli district (Tenkasi+Tirunelveli districts) had been encroached upon. 

Collectors can take a call on fencing waterbodies

In other districts, encroachments vary between 5 and 15 per cent, said the CAG report. "While selecting the land parcels to be fenced, priority must be accorded to those in urban, semi-urban, peri-urban areas, where land is more valuable and the likelihood of encroachment is high," said Kumar Jayant, revenue department secretary, in a list of guidelines for the utilisation of the fund.

Encroachments on poramboke land; surplus land under the urban land ceiling Act; ponds (kulam and kuttai); and meikal lands vested with local bodies could also be evicted using the fund, he added. Revenue officials have been told to not use the fund to fence large waterbodies, and highways and forest land.

Collectors, however, can decide on fencing those waterbodies and minor irrigation tanks that are prone to encroachment, added the directive. The government has also decided to fence land parcels the lease agreements of which have expired.

Commissioner of Land Administration S Nagarajan said: "District- level committees for encroachment eviction have been formed. Collectors will identify the sites for eviction based on discussions with the committee."