Month: February 2023

The drive to evict “encroachers” from nearly 1,900 hectares of forest and revenue land in Assam’s Sonitpur district continued for the second day on Wednesday, with 12,000-odd people, who were allegedly staying there illegally for decades, left in the lurch, a senior official said, reports PTI. Since morning, the administration started the eviction in five places of Burachapori Wildlife Sanctuary and nearby government land, the official said. “Today, we are carrying out the eviction exercise at Lathimari, Ganesh Tapu, Baghe Tapu, Gulirpar and Siali. So far it has been peaceful, and no untoward incident has been reported,” he said. With a huge posse of armed security personnel, the Sonitpur district administration had on Tuesday started the exercise to clear “encroached” land in the...

A 45-year-old woman and her daughter, 20, died in a fire during an anti-encroachment drive at a village in Kanpur Dehat district of Uttar Pradesh on Monday. The family alleged that cops set their hut ablaze when the women were inside. Local cops yesterday claimed that the two set themselves on fire, but the state police have now registered a murder case against 13 people. Those charged include the subdivisional magistrate, the station house officer and the bulldozer operator. They have also been charged with attempt to murder and voluntarily causing hurt. The incident took place in the Madauli village in the Rura area of the district where the police, district administration and revenue officials had gone to remove encroachments from a "gram samaj" or government land, a police off...

Bombay High Court (HC) has restrained officials from demolishing "unauthorised" structures on Railway land in Greater Mumbai. An order was passed by the division bench while hearing a plea by a group of slum dwellers residing on railway land in Bandra East, challenging the demolition notice. The division bench came down on the railway authorities for issuing demolition notices without taking concrete steps to rehabilitate the displaced persons. The court also said that the authorities needed to ascertain their eligibility for beneficial schemes like the Prime Minister Awas Yojna Scheme (PMAYS). Advocating a ‘humane’ approach, the HC said that merely terming the persons as ‘encroachers’ and displacing them from their current settlement will not solve the problem. “Sometimes, the...

The Income Tax (IT) Department’s ‘survey’ at the BBC office continued for the third straight day on Thursday as officials gathered financial data from select staffers and made copies of electronic and paper data of the news organisation. The operation that began at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) offices in Delhi and Mumbai around 11:30 am on Tuesday has clocked more than 48 hours now, officials said. The survey is going on, they told PTI. Authorities had said on Wednesday that the exercise would continue for some more time, saying the “exact time frame to call the operation closed rests entirely on the teams on the ground”. The survey is being carried out to investigate issues related to international taxation and transfer pricing of BBC subsidiary companies, officials...