New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday (January 5) slammed the Uttarakhand government and asked that what it had done against people who had encroached thousands of hectares of forest land since the state was formed in 2000.A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said that “each and every person holding executive position in the state is accountable for the consistent and perceived negligence”, reported Indian Express.“So from 2000, you took 23 years to wake up and find out that your land has been encroached,” said the CJI.The bench asked the state to file within two weeks a comprehensive counter affidavit having details of the “site plan, the approximate details of the constructions raised and the nature of those constructions” in the government/forest land so that it can decide whether a deeper probe is necessary.Earlier, the court, which was hearing a plea by some private individuals regarding title over some of the encroached land on December 22 had questioned the government’s ‘silence’ on alleged encroachment and had directed the chief secretary of Uttarakhand and the principal chief conservator of forests to constitute an inquiry committee to examine all the facts and submit an interim report.After seeing the state government’s reply on Monday, the CJI said “Your reply shows your helplessness as a state government.”The counsel for the state said that action was taken in 1993, and in 2023, and eviction notices were also issued, but the Uttarakhand high court stayed them.“So once in a while, you have been taking action. Ceremonial. Please file a proper affidavit on record as to what you have done as a state,” said CJI Kant.“First, you explain your conduct. You came into existence in 2000. What have you done after that? Otherwise, we are going to ask the accountability of each one of you. If you allow the people to construct their houses, you allow their generation to live there and suddenly, only because of the court order, you want to take shelter behind that, now that the court is asking,” the bench then said.“We will hold each and every one in your executive accountable. God knows who the encroachers are, with which politician or which authority or who are the influential persons who are hobnobbing,” said CJI Kant.The court in its order termed the entire phenomenon as a shocking failure of the state machinery.“We have gone through the interim report filed by the inquiry committee. … the report indicates a shocking… failure of the state machinery in protecting the government/forest land for decades. What it seems to be is that the land which was systematically encroached upon for years, a ritual of taking action against the encroachers was approved in 2023 by issuing certain notices whereupon the high court granted interim stay and the authorities again went into slumber,” said the court, reported Indian Express.