10K Egyptians to be excluded from in-kind subsidies program due to agricultural land violations

CAIRO – 23 June 2022: Sources told Al Watan newspaper that the Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade is finalizing the exclusion of 10,000 citizens, who made constructions on agricultural lands, from the in-kind subsidies program.

The sources added that, similarly, the committee in charge of detecting such violations is communicating the names of culprits with the Ministry of Social Solidarity. Hence, if some of them are beneficiaries of the monetary subsidies program Takaful and Karama, they would be no more.

As for the measures taken, when construction on agricultural land is committed, they include the immediate demolition of the buildings, exclusion from the in-kind and monetary subsidies programs, and non-eligibility for subsidized bread and subsidized fertilizers.

In a related context, the Ministry of Local Development announced in March clearing squatters from 1.1 million square meters of state-owned non-agricultural lands, and 4,653 feddans (one feddan equals 4,500 square meters) of agricultural land since March 6.  

Most of the encroachments were in the form of unlicensed buildings so as 6,511 constructions were demolished from non-agricultural lands, while 732 others were removed from agricultural lands.

The committee in charge of eliminating encroachments on state-owned lands stated in September that 75 percent of those have been removed over 18 phases since May 2017 when the campaign was launched by President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi.

That means 2.5 million feddans (one feddan equals 4,500 square meters) of agricultural lands, and 188 million square meters of non-agricultural lands have been cleared. 

The committee also clarified that 37,000 squatters had reconciled, while the requests of 44,000 others were still being examined.