Four decades ago, through various orders the State Revenue Department transferred about 66,000 kanals of State and Nazool land at different places in Jammu to the Jammu Development Authority. The idea behind the transfer of this huge chunk of land was to utilise the land for social developmental projects. The transfer carried with it necessary procedural instructions and conditions partly to be observed by the revenue functionaries and partly to be the responsibility of JDA. However, in the process, serious flaws and lacunae remained in place, particularly on the part of the Revenue Department. Except the simplistic entry in the Revenue documents called Girdawari of land transferred to JDA no other specifications were entered in records leaving ample scope for doubts and confusion, which gripped the entire scheme later on. In the process, land mafia, which is on the prowl in the State, seized the opportunity and in connivance with revenue functionaries managed to illegally grab chunks of this land in prime locations. The Revenue authorities advertently avoided reporting these illegal seizures or seeking their eviction through legal and administrative process. The net result was that thousands of kanals of valuable land remained in the possession of illegal owners and the JDA, to which these had been transferred, became almost ineffective. It was a scam of enormous dimensions.
This newspaper brought this mega scam to public notice in the edition dated April 13, 2014, which became catalyst to a Public Interest Litigation in the State High Court in which plaintiff’s sought direction for prompt demarcation of the land transferred to JDA under various formal orders. After going through the labyrinthine legal procedure, the Division Bench of the High Court considered the status report submitted by both the State Revenue Department and the JDA on the basis of which landmark decision has been announced that aims at uprooting lock, stock and barrel the hand of mafia and the nexus of land grabbers. We hail this historic verdict of the High Court which orders demarcation of 41,073 kanals and 9 marlas of the transferred State and Nazool land to begin from December 26, and complete it by April 30, 2015.
The High Court has taken comprehensive view of this case, and knowing that land mafia enjoys the component of powerful and influential persons who could stir trouble while demarcation process will be in progress, has directed the police chief to ensure that he makes arrangement of providing support to revenue functionaries when they undertake the demarcation work on the ground. Not only that, it has gone a step further by restraining all forums from entertaining any petition seeking for revision of the court order except First Division Bench and that too under condition of permission to file the case. This was necessitated by the defence counsel arguing that land grabbers could obstruct speedy implementation of court order by obtaining a stay from other forums.
This verdict is a fatal blow to land mafia that have had field day all these forty years. This is the first instalment of land demarcation and once it is completed the second instalment will take up the remaining 24000 kanals and thus put the final seal on the entire chunk of land that has been permanently transferred to JDA. In this connection, we have a couple of suggestions which the Government may consider for implementation. Firstly, a legal case against known land grabbers has to be expedited in case it is already filed with proper legal authorities. If it is not filed so far, the step must be taken now. This is to lay down precedence so that no such mafias dare to come into existence in future. Legal procedure against known culprits will also deter the designs of influential persons who have political links.
Secondly, after demarcation task is completed by the end of April including 10 sensitive locations on priority, the JDA becomes the prime actor. It will have to revitalize its entire machinery of utilising the transferred land for public interest. It must work out plans of utilisation for whatever purposes like raising residential colonies, earmarking sites for industrial units, identifying land for public institutions like schools, play grounds, parks, laboratories, IT parks, hospitals, health clinics etc. Therefore, the JDA must gird its loins and come up to the expectations of the people of Jammu and the region. It has to be noted that 10 sensitive locations are situated very close to the city and these carry great significance in regard to development and beautification of the city.
The court has conceded the demand of the JDA that demarcation should be video-graphed and all Revenue and other authorities deployed on the mission should sign the final demarcation documents. Obviously, the JDA apprehended that Revenue Department might retract on demarcation at any subsequent time and the JDA wants to have foolproof evidence that it is on the right side of the law.
Finding that there are differences on various related issues between the JDA and the Revenue Department. The High Court has rightly advised the Divisional Commissioner Jammu to overlook the demarcation exercise and also to sort out the irritants between the JDA and the Revenue Department so as to give JDA freehand in conducting its business and responding to the terms of reference. Indeed this landmark decision of the court will bring great relief to JDA and the citizenry in Jammu and pave a way for the development of the region.
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