Lands Department to tackle unlawful occupation of government land

The Lands Department reported today that as of last December, it has completed clearance of 77 black spots that involved unlawful occupation of sizeable government land, and is confident in completing operations against the remaining 23 black spots targeted within this year.

The department said its Special Duties Task Force, among the black spots cleared, had tackled a cumulative total of over 20 hectares of unlawfully occupied government land.

“Lease enforcement actions have also been carried out against 50 private lots involving lease breaches in the clearance operations, with the demolition of more than 300 illegal or unauthorized structures,” said a spokesman for the department.

The department also pointed out that its task force had so far assisted District Lands Offices in the New Territories to handle 20 cases of relatively serious land irregularities, including unlawful occupation of government land and breach of lease conditions governing private agricultural lands such as construction of subdivided flats, workshops or godowns.