*Distt level officers not enforcing Land Revenue Act
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Apr 9: Despite enjoying sufficient powers under Land Revenue Act, the field level officers of the Revenue Department are least bothered about eviction of encroachment on the State land in the length and breadth of Jammu and Kashmir and forbid repetition of the same. Moreover, they remain disdainful towards the unambiguous directions passed by the State High Court in this regard a number of times during the past nearly one year.
As per the official data, more than 20 lakh kanal State land is under the illegal occupation in almost all the districts of Jammu and Kashmir. Of this, 10.40 lakh kanals of land fall in 10 districts of Jammu region and the same is under the unauthorized occupation of 112461 persons during the past several years.
Under Section 133 of Land Revenue Act, SVT, 1996 a Revenue officer of the rank of Assistant Collector of 1st Class (Tehsildar and Assistant Commissioner Revenue) or the officer in-charge of Settlement or an Assistant Collector of 1st Class subordinate to him is empowered to remove the encroachments on the State land and forbid repetition of the same.
However, these powers were never utilized to ensure that State is not deprived of its land wealth as a result of which land mafia and common masses continued to encroach upon State land as per their sweet will and with the passage of time the encroachment on State land crossed over 20 lakh kanal figure, which was officially admitted by the Revenue Department on the floor of the State Legislature.
Subsequently, this grave issue figured in the High Court in the shape of a Public Interest Litigation and High Court was also shocked to know that due to slackness and failure of the Revenue Department authorities such a whopping land is under the illegal occupation of lakhs of people across the State.
On May 6, 2015, a Division Bench of the High Court comprising Justice Hasnain Masoodi and Justice Janak Raj Kotwal directed the State to come up with the mechanism to retrieve such a huge chunk of land from the encroachers. On October 26, 2015, the State Government sought time to come up with the mechanism and this request was conceded by the High Court. However, dilly dallying approach continued on evolving a mechanism.
On December 16, 2015, a Division Bench of High Court comprising Justice Yaqoob Mir and Justice B S Walia, on the pleadings of the Government counsel, granted six weeks time for ensuring compliance to the orders of May 6, 2015 and October 26, 2015, respectively.
Thereafter, the Divisional Commissioner Jammu came up with a status report mentioning that all the Deputy Commissioners of Jammu province were directed to constitute district-wise encroachment removal teams/action plan and thereafter go ahead with the removal of encroachments on State, Kahcharai and Common Land in a systematic and planned manner by forming Niabat-wise/ Tehsil-wise/Sub-Division wise joint teams as provided under Section 133 of Land Revenue Act.
However, till date none of the Deputy Commissioners has come up with the satisfactory report on removal of encroachments despite lapse of considerable period of time, sources said, adding “the non-seriousness on the part of the Deputy Commissioners is notwithstanding the fact that office of the Divisional Commissioner even issued repeated reminders in this regard”.
“Had there been seriousness on the part of officers responsible to implement Land Revenue Act the situation would have not reached such an alarming level”, sources said, adding “even now these officers are not ready to perform their duties and make use of this Act to retrieve the land and avoid future encroachment. In this way, they also remain disdainful towards the explicit directions of the High Court”.
When contacted, some officers, who enjoy the powers under Land Revenue Act said, “we would have started implementing the directions of the High Court but we have been compelled to divert the attention towards the exercise initiated to implement National Food Security Act”, adding “all the Revenue related works have been made victim to the NFSA exercise during the last several months”.
“Whatever may be the circumstances, the Government must ensure that Land Revenue Act is implemented in real sense and not only the encroached land is retrieved the future attempts must also be thwarted”, sources stressed and hoped that new Revenue Minister would take up retrieval of encroached State land on mission mode.
Follow our WhatsApp channel