Patna,(BiharTimes): The bench of Justice Jayanandan Singh of Patna high court on Monday directed the Panchayati Raj Department to list cases of land encroachment for construction of roads in Bihar.

The direction came after the Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar filed a petition last week in which she sought a direction to authorities concerned to demolish or remove a road laid by the Ara Municipal Corporation on her raiyati (private) land in Chandwa, Ara.

The court directed the Panchayati Raj Department’s principal secretary to inform it after getting details from all district magistrates (DMs) in this regard by the next date of hearing on June 20.

The principal secretaries of Panchayati Raj and Rural Works Departments, who were present in the court, conceded that the cases of encroachment of land for laying roads. They assured the court that they would collect the reports from the DMs.

The court also passed the direction to implead the Urban Development Department as a party to the case as the Speaker’s case falls within the jurisdiction of the Municipal Corporation controlled by it.

The court expanded the ambit of Speaker’s petition as there were dozens of cases in which substantial part of private land of citizens had allegedly been encroached upon by authorities, sometimes by use of force, for constructing public buildings.