Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Mar 1: Notwithstanding the tall claims of the Government about leaving no stone unturned to retrieve the encroached State land, the land-mafia and encroachers continued to remain active and have illegally occupied over 20 lakh kanal of State land in the length and breadth of Jammu and Kashmir that too right under the nose of the concerned authorities.
The figures about whopping State land having been encroached by the land-mafia and various individuals were provided by none else than the Minister for Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation, Aijaz Khan in reply to the question of National Panthers Party (NPP) MLA from Samba, Yash Paul Kundal in the Legislative Assembly today.
“A total of 20,46,436 kanal of State land is under the occupation of various individuals in 20 districts of the State while as no such encroachment has taken place in Leh and Kargil districts”, the Minister said in the written reply.
Rajouri district is on the top of list of such districts with 3,96,018 kanal of State land under the illegal occupation of various individuals. Rajouri is followed by Doda and Ramban districts where 1,77,551 kanal and 1,67,521 kanal of State land is under the illegal occupation.
In Jammu district, 1,60,358 kanal of State land has been encroached by the land mafia and various individuals while as in Udhampur and Reasi districts the figures stand at 1,52,416 and 1,41,525 kanal respectively.
As far as other districts of the Jammu province are concerned, 1,0,4746 kanal of State land is under encroachment in Kathua, 75,159 kanal in Kishtwar, 1,29,717 kanal in Poonch and 97,133 kanal in Samba district.
In Kashmir valley, 33,710 kanal of State land is under encroachment in Anantnag, 46,920 kanal in Bandipora, 1,14,135 kanal in Baramulla, 43,742 kanal in Budgam, 24,544 kanal in Ganderbal, 29,114 kanal in Kulgam, 54,034 kanal in Kupwara, 40,620 kanal in Pulwama, 13,180 kanal in Shopian and 44,294 kanal in Srinagar district.
However, the Minister didn’t furnish the information about State land under the illegal occupation of Government officials, bureaucrats, legislators, ex-legislators and Ministers and simply said, “the exact information regarding particulars of the occupants of the State land is voluminous”.
About the area of land regularized under “Roshni Act”, the Minister said that 4324 kanal of land has been approved by the Committees in Anantnag, 11002 kanal in Bandipora, 4200 kanal in Baramulla, 3321 kanal in Budgam, 809 kanal in Ganderbal, 941 kanal in Kulgam, 3139 kanal in Kupwara, 3311 kanal in Pulwama, 1849 kanal in Shopian, 496 kanal in Srinagar, 54212 kanal in Doda, 44915 kanal in Jammu, 26292 kanal in Kathua, 18185 kanal in Kishtwar, 6597 kanal in Poonch, 283444 kanal in Rajouri, 24993 kanal in Ramban, 13380 kanal in Reasi, 8585 kanal in Samba and 90607 kanal in Udhampur district.
“The exact details of the revenue expected to be generated from such land will be available once all the applications are disposed off by the concerned district price fixation committees constituted under the Act”, the Minister said.
It is pertinent to mention here that under J&K State Lands (Vesting of Ownership to Occupants) Act, an occupant who is in actual physical possession of the State land as on the date of commencement of the Act and recorded as such into revenue records may apply for vesting of ownership. However, State land required for any public purpose has been kept out of the purview of the Act.
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