Delegation meets Kabra
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 28: A delegation of Prem Nath Bhat Memorial Trust met the Financial Commissioner, Shaleen Kabra here, today and raised issues concerning the agricultural land and temple land belonging to displaced Kashmiri Pandit community in Valley.
The delegation was headed by Vijay Bakaya, former Chief Secretary and Ex MLC and it submitted a memorandum to him. The other members included Virender Raina, Brij Lal Bhat, Roshan Lal Pandita, Kuldeep Raina, Kashmiri Lal, Dr.R.L.Bhat and Abhay Bakaya.
Financial Commissioner assured delegation that their concerns will be looked into.
The memorandum said after the passage of the Migrants Properties Act of 1997, no change in the Revenue records of the migrant property can be affected. The change in the status of such property be it under the Agrarian Reforms Act of 1976, settlement or any other act can’t take place. Yet there are instances where the provisions of the law have been overlooked or circumvented.
It further said that mutations under sections 4,7,8 etc have been done even after the passage of the Migrant Act to the detriment of the displaced land owners.
Further no rent is recovered from the tenants under the relevant sections of the Agrarian Reforms Act (ARA) of 1976. In such cases the plea is given that full-fledged ownership rights have been conferred upon tenants without the knowledge of the owners of land as record has been changed without any reference to the owners and without hearing them. The memorandum demanded reversal of all these farcical mutations and land be restored to the owners.
It said under Section 7 of ARA, the resumption forms have not been decided in many cases as records are claimed to have been gutted or destroyed which needs investigation.
Moreover, under the garb of settlement proceedings many land owners have been removed from the records of their properties. The Migrant Act of 1997 states that the migrant property can’t be taken away as a result of any settlement process so the land of all migrant land owners as a result of settlement be restored forthwith.
It said the complaints made to the concerned District Magistrates regarding the encroachments are not enquired and the majority of the complaints are tossed aside. Orders related to eviction are not followed as a result the migrants have to run from pillar to post.
The delegation demanded cancellation of all the mutations, change in record after 1990, especially after the passage of the Migrants Act of 1997 and removal of encroachments on migrant properties.
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