Encroachment in Himayat Baugh demolished on orders of HC

Aurangabad:

Acting upon the orders of the High Court, the Department of Revenue with the assistance of the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has removed an illegal encroachment of tin partition made in the biodiversity area of the Himayat Baugh.

It may be noted that the Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Agriculture University (Parbhani) has its Fruit Research Station (FRS) in Himayat Baugh. A few months ago, an encroachment was made on its land. An effort was made to make pucca construction inside the partition. The encroachment was made on 40 R land bearing Gut Number 22.

The illegal activity was posing threat to the biodiversity of the sprawling garden. Hence Adv Sandesh Hange filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Aurangabad Bench of the Bombay High Court. The hearing on the petition was held and the HC issued notices to the divisional commissioner, district collector, municipal commissioner and Parbhani's agriculture university. On Thursday evening, the hearing was held before the HC bench comprising Justice Ravindra Ghughe and Justice Sanjay Deshmukh. The chief government pleader D R Kale and AMC's lawyer informed the High Court that the encroachment on FRS land in Himayat Baugh (on Gut Number 22) has been removed on November 10 at 3 pm. During the hearing, on behalf of the agriculture university, the need of increasing the number of security guards was underlined to evade encroachment in future. Hence the HC directed the varsity to correspond with the local administration in connection with the increase of the security guards to ensure that there is no encroachment on garden land in future.

The High Court also instructed the agriculture university to ensure that there does not remain any ownership dispute of Himayat Baugh land in future. Hence it should deposit the necessary charges (fee) to the tehsil land record (TLR) for the measurement of its land. Accordingly, the TLR has been instructed to conduct the measurement immediately, stated the HC.