In an interview with the IRIB’s website, Ghobad Afshar claimed that the offending officials have been identified with the assistance of the Inspector General and referred to the judicial authorities. He added: Following this action, some mayors and village administrators have been sentenced to fines and dismissal from service.
More than 800 cases of administrative violations on land use changes were referred to the judicial authorities, he acknowledged, according to the website of the State Agency of Land Affairs.
Land use change means any action that prevents agricultural use in agricultural lands and gardens including building, removal of sand and other actions that with the discretion of the Ministry of Agriculture are deemed to be land use changes.
Meanwhile, a top Iranian judicial authority confirmed the role of some parliamentarians in the violations of land-grabbing. He said the country’s agriculture and poultry and cattle farming will disappear if the current conditions continue.
The state-run website Javanonline wrote on March 10 under the title of “Footprint of some MPs in land-grabbing” that Mohammad Javad Heshmati, the Iranian regime’s deputy prosecutor, pointed out the role of some parliamentarians in land-grabbing violations and stressed that ‘environmental terrorists’ have destroyed the natural resources of the country.
Heshmati added that this has caused our villages to have a tragic situation today because with transforming rural and agricultural lands to buildings and villas, in fact farming, poultry and agriculture are destroyed. They become more dependent on cities and eventually villagers sell their lands to the cities or their lands are dried up.
He acknowledged that changes in land use in villages and beaches have destroyed thousands of hectares of land in Iran.
