Divisional Commissioner Kashmir Asghar Samoon also constituted a committee to look into the illegal constructions and asked it to report to him on weekly basis, an official spokesman said here.
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He said Samoon passed the directions while chairing a high-level meeting regarding the illegal constructions on saffron fields.
The committee comprises Deputy Commissioner Pulwama, Joint Director Agriculture and concerned Tehsildars.
Divisional Commissioner was informed that encroachers have occupied various places in 27 villages of Pampore, a saffron-rich plateau in south Kashmir, the spokesman said.
Samoon directed the concerned authorities to take necessary steps to stop illegal constructions immediately and initiate legal action against the offenders.
The spokesman said the National Saffron Mission (NSM) project was also thoroughly discussed during the meeting.
Last year, the Centre extended by two more years the Rs 371 crore National Saffron Mission, launched in 2010, to rejuvenate saffron cultivation in the Valley.
Following the devastating floods in September 2014, the state government had requested the Centre to grant a two-year extension to complete the project in view of huge crop loss due to the deluge.
Almost 90 per cent of saffron production of Kashmir comes from Pampore, 16 kms from Srinagar.
The National Saffron Mission Programme -- with Rs 286.06 crore as the Central Government's share and Rs 85.12 crore as farmers' share -- was initially to be executed in four years.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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