No focus on land settlement since 1971 war to facilitate obtaining of PRCs
Numerous requests of Leh admn fall on deaf ears
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Feb 26: In a bizarre case, hundreds of inhabitants of a village situated along the Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan in Nubra valley of Leh district are facing immense difficulties in proving themselves as residents of Jammu and Kashmir even nearly five decades after their area became part of the Jammu and Kashmir State.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that in 1971 war between India and Pakistan several villages including Tyakshi, Turtuk and Thang came under the Indian control but the revenue records remained in Skardu, the then revenue district headquarter of these areas and which falls in Pakistan.
With the passage of time, these villages became part of the Nubra Assembly constituency in Leh district and in order to obtain benefits of the schemes of the Jammu and Kashmir the inhabitants of these villages started pressing for settlement of land under their control so as to ensure proper entries in the revenue records of the State.
Proper entries in the revenue records by way of land settlement were imperative to facilitate inhabitants of these villages to obtain Permanent Resident Certificates (PRCs), which is considered as legally admissible document to prove their identity as residents of Jammu and Kashmir.
“The several years long struggle yielded positive results for the inhabitants of Turtuk, Chulunka and Thang villages but proper entries in the revenue records about the land on which they are putting up is a dream for hundreds of people of Tyakshi village even nearly five decades after the area became part of Jammu and Kashmir”, sources said.
“In order to prove that they are the residents of Jammu and Kashmir, every-time the inhabitants of Tyakshi village are required to get court affidavit after producing witnesses, which is a cumbersome process in the light of the fact that this is the second last village on the Line of Control with Pakistan”, they further said.
Neither the people of Thang, the last village on the LoC, nor those of Turtuk, which is ahead of Tyakshi, have been deprived of the facility of obtaining PRCs in hassle free manner but hundreds of inhabitants of second last village have remained no priority for the successive State Governments.
As per the reports, some of the inhabitants of Tyakshi have managed to get Aadhar cards but this is not sufficient or admissible legally to prove that they own the land, where they have been living for decades.
“In the absence of land settlement there is confusion among the inhabitants of Tyakshi village about which chunk of land belongs to whom and who is legally entitled to utilize the land for cultivation and other purposes”, they informed.
It is pertinent to mention here that Financial Commissioner Revenue is required to play crucial role in land settlement, an exercise which should be conducted after every one decade to remove ambiguities in the land records.
According to the sources, four-five years back the then Deputy Commissioner Leh had formally written to the then Financial Commissioner Revenue for initiating steps to resolve the issue being faced by the inhabitants of Tyakshi village. Thereafter, the issue was raised by the successive Deputy Commissioners with the Financial Commissioner Revenue a number of times but till date no interest has been shown towards redressing the grievances of people, which they are facing during the past nearly five decades.
Former MLA from Nubra Deldan Namgyal, when contacted, said, “there is hardly any forum where the grievances of Tyakshi village were not raised by me but it seems that State Government is not ready to provide justice to hundreds of people”, adding “because of no fault of theirs people of this LoC village are suffering immensely”.
“This issue was also raised in the Legislative Assembly a number of times and every time assurance was given by the State Government that the steps will be initiated to provide justice to the inhabitants of Tyakshi village. However, the assurances have not been translated into reality till date”, former MLA said.
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