<p>KANDAHAR CITY (Pajhwok): Local officials say 33,000 acres of government and private land has been grabbed in southern Kandahar province, hampering different projects.</p>
<p>Most of the land has been grabbed by strongmen, who have sold it, according to officials. Efforts for retaking the land have been initiated and hundreds of acres have been recovered and the grabbers referred introduced to the judiciary.</p>
<p>Most of the land was usurped in Kandahar City, the provincial capital, and eight districts.</p>
<p>Mohibullah, a resident of the ninth police district of Kandahar City, told Pajhwok Afghan News hundreds of acres of land had been usurped by strongmen over the last few decades.</p>
<p>He said that people without shelter had purchased the land and constructed mud houses on it.</p>
<p>“Most of the people who bought this land and built houses on it have either returned from abroad or were displaced by war from different areas of Kandahar, Helmand and Uruzgan,” he added.</p>
<p>Mohibullah explained the houses were built without an urban plan and the people living there had no access to clean water, <a href="/en/education" class="glossify-link">education</a> facilities and other services.</p>
<p>He alleged the strongmen had also grabbed graveyards and government land in Kandahar City and built markets and other commercial centres on them.</p>
<p>Haji Hayat Khan, an inhabitant of Maiwand district, confirmed the strongmen had even encroached n farmlands many other districts.</p>
<p>Using conflict and violence as an opportunity, people in Maiwand district had merged government into their own land and cultivated it for personal benefits, he claimed.</p>
<p>Hayat Khan alleged most of the grabbers were strongmen who cultivated the outlawed poppy crop and thus earned a handsome amount of money.</p>
<p>Eng. Hanif, director of urban development, confirmed to Pajhwok that thousands of acres of land had been usurped in the province.</p>
<p>He said most of the grabbed land was located in Kandahar City and eight districts of the province.</p>
<p>The official explained 919 acres of land was grabbed in Dand, 330 in Daman, 500 in Arghistan, 145 in Spin Boldak, 363 in Takhtapul, 266 in Panjwai, 20 in Arghandab and 500 in Zherai and Maiwand districts.</p>
<p>Hundreds of acres of land in Kandahar City and districts have been wrested back with the support of the local administration, he claimed.</p>
<p>Governor Hayatullah Hayat verified the illegal occupation of around 33,000 acres of land by government officials and strongmen, impeding the implementation of different projects.</p>
<p>He said serious efforts for recovering the land had been launched and 1,800 acres had been taken back from the grabbers.</p>
<p>Hayat continued the land recovered from grabbers had been prepared for the execution of important projects.</p>
<p>For example, he said, hundreds of acres of land had been recovered in Daman district, near Kandahar Airport, where a jail would be built.</p>
<p>He said the local administration planned to recover the remaining usurped land and design townships on for the needy people.</p>
<p>mds/mud</p>
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