Encroachment and illegal occupation of State land and the question of eviction of encroachment is a major issue for the State. In fact, the enormously powerful and influential land mafia in the State may never be touched, let alone evicting it from unauthorized occupancy. There are several reasons. Primarily encroachment and illegal occupation of State and kahcharai lands cannot happen unless revenue establishment is part and parcel of such illegal occupations.
Secondly, there is connivance between the land gabbers, Revenue officials and sections of concerned bureaucratic set up. Many among them have strong political clout with easy approach in the corridor of power. Even some powerful politicians, inside or outside the Government, too, are the stakeholders and it is but natural that they will use their influence to stonewall any attempt on the part of the Government functionaries to bring them to book. It is true that the State High Court has been handling a PIL demanding that illegal occupation of State and kahcharai land be evicted. It has issued instructions to the State Government to submit status report of evictions enforced till date and the mechanism in place for such evictions. Total area of encroached lands in Jammu province shown by the Revenue Department is 1090699 kanals of State land and 78436 kanals of Kahcharai land in the 10 districts at the time of issuance of directions by the High Court. During last one year encroachment has been removed from 49844 kanals of State land and 22175 kanals of Kahcharai land in 10 districts of Jammu division and encroachments are still intact on 1049320 kanals of State land and 57601 kanals of Kahcharai land at present. This is a huge amount and going by the speed with which authorities are trying to retrieve the grabbed land, it may take decades or even one century.
The notable thing is that the official paperwork is fine and in place but the result is all discouraging. The Divisional Commissioner of Jammu has issued instructions to all the Deputy Commissioners to go fast on reclaiming the illegally occupied lands whether these are State lands or Kahcharai lands. He has even permitted the Deputy Commissioners to requisition the assistance of police authorities wherever required to see to it that encroachment is vacated and land retrieved. However at district level the work of eviction goes on such a slow pace that there is no hope of task being fulfilled in decades.
Yet another surprising thing is that a large portion of these lands officially report as evicted does not conform to the ground situation. It has come to our notice that the lands may be shown as evicted in the records but the actual position on the ground is that land grabbers have managed to occupy these lands once again. How that has happened remains a mystery.
Very often we hear that various developmental schemes in the State are pending for want of land. The result is that development of the State remains halted indefinitely. Imagine if these thousands of kanals of land were available with the Government, how much it would facilitate for installing new projects and schemes or allotting these for setting up industrial units in the State that would provide employment to hundreds of youth and at the same time give a boost to the economy of the State. We appreciate the concerns of the State High Court for insisting on the Government to be pro-active in reclaiming the illegally occupied lands because allowing continuance of illegal occupation sends a wrong signal that the Government is powerless to deal with this issue. The Government has to be strong and come down with a heavy hand on authorities that fail to deliver the goods. It is the duty of the Government to break the nexus of land mafia.
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