Land grabbing in the State has almost become an acknowledged crime. Past history tells us that there are scant chances of vacating illegal occupation of State or Forest land once it has been taken possession of. The reason is the resourcefulness of the land grabbers in political and administrative circles. They use money and political power knowing that the entire administrative structure is corrupt and vulnerable. The issue of land grabbing has been highlighted by the media but that makes no impact.
The bane of our democratic process is that persons are treated above law, and influential persons are never allowed to be touched by the law. This happens only when the entire administrative system is corrupted. Thousands of kanals of State and Forest land still remains illegally occupied and encroached upon despite notification by the Forest Department, Vigilance and even the Court of Law. One fails to understand how come land grabbers in our State have become above law and judicial institution and still the Government goes on looking like a silent spectator.
Let us be forthright in this matter. The Minister in charge of Forest Department made a statement on the floor of the house that a senior politicians and two former Ministers besides two Government officials and hoteliers have been accused of encroaching forest land in Jammu and Kashmir. The former senior minister is Taj Mohi-ud-Din of Congress in the erstwhile coalition of NC-Congress Government and two more former ministers are Bashir Ahmad and Farida Begum. Taj Mohi-ud-Din is alleged to have encroached upon an area of 26.20 kanals of forest land in compartment V-4C Sedev of Shopian forest division in South Kashmir. Former Minister Bashir Ahmad and Farida Begum have encroached 4 kanals and 10 marlas of land respectively. The Minister said that the Government has taken action under rules and notices have been issued to these persons but they have approached the court of law claiming that they have not violated the rules. Obviously, if the case is pending with the court of law, the Government cannot do anything more than just wait for the decision of the court.
This is a very piquant situation that the revenue or the forest records show that the land has been encroached upon and yet the encroachers are trying to justify their illegal act.
The question is that in these cases ministers are involved and not ordinary citizens. A Minister is an elected representative of the people and holds their trust. A Minister takes the oath of office before he begins to function. The oath implies that he will honestly discharge his duties and will not misuse the authority and powers invested in him by the constitution. By encroaching state or forest land, he breaks the trust reposed in him by the people. He breaks the oath he has taken in the name of God, and he breaks the rules and regulations enacted by the civil society through proper legislative process. In this way, he has lost the trust of the people and the Government and in terms of moral laws, he is a culprit. Such a person deserves to be brought to book and dealt with severely so that others take a lesson from it.
Incidentally, it has also been stated by the Minister on the floor of the house that some hoteliers are also involved in land grabbing and he has mentioned some of such cases. All this shows that a super class among the civil society is emerging that is carving a position for itself by circumventing the rules and regulations, by hoodwinking the administrative authorities or by bribing them, whatever is possible. This does not augur well for the civil society because these are the signs of drift towards anarchy. The civil society is getting polarized between the influential upper layer and the deprived and helpless lower layer. The very fact that the land grabbers approach the court of law or the higher court shows that everything is not all right while the powerful are taking the possession of the land by sheer force of influence.
We have more than once reflected the public opinion on this serious issue. The Government has taken some steps in the past but these are half-hearted and non-serious. This nexus cannot be broken that easy unless there is a Government with strong determination to put an end to land grabbing process. How the Government will stem the tide and find a solution to this problem is a multi-million dollar question. From our point of view, ruthless enforcement of law of the land could work effectively. But for that the Government must have the will to do. It is, therefore, for the Government to decide the future course of action.
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