Anti-encroachment drive momentarily paused in J&K

After widespread resentment among people over the alleged dictatorial manner in which the eviction drive for the state as well as ‘Kahcharai’ land has been carried in Jammu and Kashmir- in a small reprieve the administration has halted the ongoing drive for the time being.

As per sources, it learnt that the administration has issued notices to affected people and given a proper hearing to residents before arriving with bulldozers.

“For the last couple no eviction drive has been carried out in the Jammu region and in fact the land records are being verified before further action”, divisional commissioner, Jammu, Ramesh Kumar said.

The sources have also confirmed that the centre too has played a role in halting the eviction drive. The J&K BJP leaders have voiced their opposition to ongoing drive where even marginal landholders are facing the bulldozers despite assurances from none other than union home minister Amit Shah and Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha,
It is leant the ministry of home affairs has told J&K administration to verify the records properly before going for the drive.

Land measuring more than 10 lakh kanals has been retrieved across Jammu and Kashmir after the commissioner secretary of the revenue department, Vijay Kumar Bidhuri, directed all deputy commissioners to ensure a 100-per cent removal of encroachments from state land, including “Roshni” and “Kahcharai” (grazing land), on January 7.

Meanwhile Mayor Srinagar, Junaid Azim Mattu has said that not a single house will be demolished for Doodh ganga Restoration.

Mattu said in meeting with the residents and community elders of various localities and colonies on the stretch of Aloochi Bagh to Chattabal

Doodh Ganga Rejuvenation and Restoration Project and assured the residents that no colonies will be displaced, nor any houses demolished – including the downtrodden colonies and slum settlements on this stretch.

The Mayor, while condemning traditional mischief mongers and agent provocateurs who were provoking the people and spreading misinformation, assured the residents that not a single residential colony, including slum structures, would be disturbed or affected by this project.

Another official said that “geo-tagging and geo-referencing” of the retrieved land was going on. The eviction drive has not stopped. It is just that the land that has been retrieved so far is being geo-tagged and digitised. It cannot be that we keep removing encroachments and losing them at the same time. There is a written order that all such land has to be geo-referenced so that the same activity is not resumed again,” the official said.

About fortnight back Supreme Court had dismissed a petition challenging the circular issued by the Union Territory administration fixing January 31 deadline for evictions.

In October 2018, the then governor Satya Pal Malik repealed the Roshni Act prospectively. And in October 2020, the High Court declared the Roshni Act “illegal, unconstitutional and unsustainable” and held allotments under the Act as void ab initio.

It ordered a CBI probe into the transfer of ownership, sought action against bureaucrats involved, and asked the government to make public the names of prominent people who had been allotted land under the Act.

Earlier this month, the UT administration had issued a circular asking all deputy commissioners to remove encroachment on these lands by January 31.

All parties in J&K have been critical of the administration’s actions.