Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said she would not tolerate encroachment on government land and her government would initiate stern measures against all those who help people settle on government land parcels.

“Departments like forest, irrigation and urban development are here and I would ask all to ensure that fresh encroachment on government land should be prevented,” said the chief minister during an administrative review meeting at Nabanna on Thursday.

“If fresh encroachment on government land takes place, I will not spare the local IC and SP. The BDOs would not be spared too,” Mamata added.

Mamata warned the top brass of the administration, including ministers and district magistrates, and representatives of panchayats and civic bodies to stay away from helping people grab government land.

“If DMs stay put at their homes (without initiating steps against encroachment), I will not tolerate it. If any of the ministers, panchayat members or civic body councillors help people settle on government land for their own benefit, I will not spare anybody,” the chief minister said.

Many senior bureaucrats feel this was the first time the chief minister took up the issue so seriously.

“She had earlier asked the officials to initiate steps against encroachment of government land.... But this is the first time, she made it clear that none in the administration would be spared if found guilty of helping people encroach government land. This message from the chief minister was required if the government seriously wanted to save government land from further encroachment,” said a senior government official.

Sources said the chief minister raised the issue after a survey by the land and land reforms department and South 24-Parganas administration revealed prime government land parcels were encroached upon in wards 107, 108 and 109 of Calcutta Municipal Corporation. More than 800 high-rises were erected on government land and flats were sold to ordinary citizens in these three wards of the city.

“The survey hinted at how government land was encroached across the state. The chief minister wants to put an end to it. If the practice continues, the government won’t get land for development projects in the future as the Trinamool-led state government is against land acquisition,” said an official.

The chief minister asked the authorities to initiate stern action against the developers who erected the buildings on government land and sold them to common people. She added that the practice had started during the Left Front regime.

Stressing that citizens who bought the flats were not at fault, Mamata said a policy would be framed to regularise the flats.

“In case of large buildings, a fine should be imposed. The penalty should be on a par with the current market rate of the land parcels. A committee headed by the home secretary would take a call on this,” Mamata said.

Officials pulled up

The chief minister pulled up several departments during the administrative review meeting at Nabanna on Thursday.

Mamata chastised the industries department for illegal sand mining in several districts even after many ghats were leased out to private agencies. She pulled up Birbhum DM Bidhan Roy for illegal lifting of sand from several areas in his district and asked him to get the practice stopped within a week.

Mamata asked the land and land reforms department to take action against all the BLROs who had a role in issuing fake mutations of land that harassed several landowners.

Land and land reforms secretary Vivek Kumar said some 50 officials involved in this irregularity were identified.

Mamata asked health secretary N.S. Nigam if officials were visiting the grassroots primary hospitals and Suswasthya Kendras regularly.

When Nigam said that these healthcare hubs were being monitored, Mamata was not visibly satisfied. She asked Nigam to see to it that effective treatment was given at these health centres so that there was no need to refer patients to other hospitals.

Mamata asked the East Burdwan DM to look into complaints of traders using government waterbodies for their own interest.