650,000 acres of govt land usurped nationwide

KABUL Independent Land Authority (AILA) on Wednesday said more than 650,000 acres of land has been usurped by powerful individuals in 30 provinces of the country.

Ghulam Hussain Rahmani, AILA spokesman, said the government has a strong will to retake the grabbed land under a five-year plan already underway.

He said 15,831 comparatively not very powerful land grabbers had constructed residential buildings on the land they had usurped. High powerful individuals had grabbed land measuring up to 50,000 acres, he added.

Rahmani said the public land had been encroached upon in 30 provinces while there were no records of land-grabbing in four provinces.

On the other hand, Kabul municipality spokesman Jalil Sultani said more than 70 percent of buildings in capital Kabul had been illegally constructed.

He said the illegal buildings were being demolished and 150 of such structures had so far destroyed or their construction suspended by the municipality.

“The municipality is working together with international organizations on a new mechanism to legalize the buildings because destroying them all is impossible,” Sultani said.

He said online issuance of permits for properties had been activated and people were now able to obtain licenses through the internet.

mds/ma

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