As Bokaro district administration inches towards its July 15 deadline to send a list of encroached land in all nine blocks to chief secretary Rajbala Verma and revenue, registration and land reforms secretary K.K. Soan, data collected so far says over 39,860 acres in various categories have been usurped by over 24,000 persons.

"We still have two days left to send details of encroached land in this district to Ranchi. The figure may exceed 40,000 acres," Bokaro additional collector Jugnu Minj told The Telegraph on Wednesday.

Last month, following a spate of complaints of land encroachment in Bokaro, Minj was directed to compile a comprehensive list of acres under encroachment by July 15 to Verma and Soan.

"All the nine block development officers and circle officers in respective blocks are burning midnight oil to prepare the list of encroached land as only two days are left," Minj said. "We have also prepared the list of the persons encroaching the land. Till date, 24,000 encroachers will be sent notices. This too may rise. Notices will be slapped on them in due course."

The new records also suggest that acre-wise, Chas tops the encroachment list, followed by Petarwar, Jaridih, Chandankyari, Bermo, Nawadih and Chandrapura blocks. In comparison, less land has been encroached in Gomia and Kasmar blocks.

However, as far as number of alleged offenders go, Nawadih tops with 7,872. The least offenders, 1,265 so far, are in Kasmar.

Showing the list of encroachments, Minj told The Telegraph that no land had been spared.

"Riverbeds, forests, hills, government lands under gair mazrua aam and khas and khasmahal categories, mining lease land, among others, have been encroached by influential persons, including politicians of almost all parties, social workers and bureaucrats," he said.

The list will be sent to Ranchi from Bokaro district headquarters on July 15 by a special messenger. It needs to be seen what Verma and Soan do with it.