Residents of Ogna Naka village alleged officials of Forest Department for looting and burning their houses to move them from their land. They gave a memorandum to Superintendent of Police to take legal actions against the officials.

While Narayan Singh, ranger of Forest Department blamed that a few villagers had encroached the department’s land, that was why the action was taken and encroachments were removed in a proper way.

According to the memorandum, the villagers said that on 2^nd March around 11 am, Forest Officials Prabhu Lal Bhatt and Ranger Narayan Singh, with other officials, looted and burnt their houses to remove them from the forest land.

They mentioned about the notification from the Central government which says that a villager’s file is pending for patta, then no action should be taken by the officials to shift him from the land until the file is cleared.

Villagers also mentioned that the local police have taken a few people of the village into custody after a complaint from the forest officials.

“Encroachments till 2005 are entitled for patta and will be considered by the authority, but encroachments after the mentioned year will not be considered until an amendment is enforced by the authority”, said Harini V. Deputy Conservator Forest (South).