Mumbai police wants its land back, states the strongly worded letter written by the Building Branch of the police department.
This letter has been addressed to all additional commissioners, deputy commissioners and senior inspectors stating that the encroachment on the land within the jurisdiction of Mumbai police and the land reserved for the department should be immediately removed. The letter doesn't end here; it also states that a proposal should be submitted to the branch office to build a security wall or fencing on the land.
Former officers say that if the police department gets back their land, then it will solve the problem of operational and residential facilities to a great extent. The letter, a copy of which is available with dna, states: "After doing a physical survey of the land within Mumbai police jurisdiction and reserved for the police department, it came to notice that these lands were encroached upon. All additional commissioners were earlier directed to take necessary measures to remove encroachment, maintain vigil so that no encroachment takes place on these land. Accordingly, they had to submit a compliance report to the department. But the department has learnt that encroachment continues to take place."
Hereby, all zonal deputy commissioners have again been directed they should do in person survey of the police land and land reserved for the department and ensure no encroachment takes place, the letter further states.
The department has also made it clear that if encroachment takes place, assistant commissioner of the division and senior police inspector concerned will be held responsible. "If there is any existing encroachment, in order to remove the encroachment, senior police inspector concerned should personally coordinate with related departments such as collector office, Mhada and BMC, carry out necessary action and submit a proposal to put up protection fence or walls at the earliest," the letter concludes.
"Encroached lands are mostly lands reserved for the police for setting up training facilities for specialised units. There are a lot of land reserved for cops, but sadly is not in their possession due to encroachment. It had also come to light that some lower level personnel connive to set-up slums in police land," said former Indian Police Service officer and lawyer YP Singh.
As per Singh, these reserved lands are neglected by the department as police is busy tackling with crime, law and order and other matters, and is not interested in administrative work. "If there are slums on the police land – which are very old – then they would have to be taken under slum rehabilitation scheme. Slums, which have come up after 1995, can be removed if the unit commander takes interest and coordinates with the collector to evict those who have encroached on the police land," he added.
Singh also says that the police land gets high floor space index and if the department gets their land back, a lot of operational and residential facilities can be taken care of.
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