Boundaries of merely 14 kanals defined in three months
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Oct 4: Even after numerous directions from the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir the joint demarcation of State land transferred to Jammu Development Authority (JDA) is going on at a snail’s pace due to lack of proper coordination between Authority and Revenue Department and this is evident from the fact that around 10,000 kanals of land is yet to be demarcated in Jammu and Samba districts.
In a Public Interest Litigation (PIL), the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir issued numerous directions for early completion of demarcation of State land transferred to Jammu Development Authority from time to time.
Not only High Court of Jammu and Kashmir even successive Divisional Commissioners Jammu, who were under direction to monitor the exercise, issued instructions for early completion of demarcation while reviewing the functioning of the Jammu Development Authority from time to time.
The objective behind the joint demarcation of land was to prevent it from encroachments and to create proper land bank for the Jammu Development Authority and generation of sufficient revenue by way of creation of Housing Colonies, flats and commercial projects.
“Though joint demarcation was conducted with Revenue Department authorities in respect of several land patches in Jammu and Samba districts yet exercise has not reached its logical conclusion despite lapse of several years”, official sources told EXCELSIOR while holding lack of proper coordination between both the agencies of the Government responsible for inordinate delay.
As per the official figures, joint demarcation of 10,000 kanals of State land transferred to JDA is yet to be completed. Moreover, Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) mapping of the unmapped JDA land and fencing of vacant patches have not been completed despite the fact that even demarcated but unfenced land is prone to encroachments.
The Director Land Management of JDA vide Letter No.JDA/DLM/HQA/150-3-05 dated June 7, 2023 directed the Tehsildar Zone A, B, C and D for identification of vacant patches of JDA land. In compliance to the letter, the list of 13 patches provided by the Tehsildar JDA Zone C/ D was shared with the Superintending Engineer JDA for further necessary action.
Accordingly, five plots measuring approximately 14 kanals of land were fenced in Transport Nagar, Narwal and one plot measuring approximately 64 kanals at Salmeri in Vijaypur was planned to be taken up for fencing.
The schedule for demarcation/ taking over of balance 9805 kanals and 17 marlas of Government land was drawn and shared with the Revenue authorities which was effective from June 7, 2023 to September 4, 2023.
However, only 14 kanals and 11 marlas of land was demarcated from June 7, 2023 to September 4, 2023 and the next revised schedule for joint demarcation from the Revenue Department authorities is still awaited, sources informed and stressed that Government particularly the Housing and Urban Development Department should intervene immediately and ensure proper coordination between both the agencies so that directions of the High Court regarding demarcation of entire State land transferred to JDA are implemented in letter and spirit.
It is pertinent to mention here that in the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) based on the exclusive news-item of EXCELSIOR highlighting inordinate delay in proper demarcation of huge chunk of land transferred to the Jammu Development Authority in Jammu and Samba districts several years back, the High Court started issuing directions for prompt action by all the concerned authorities in the year 2017.
The High Court had explicitly directed the Revenue authorities of Jammu and Samba districts as well as Jammu Development Authority to prepare action plan for demarcation of land in a time bound manner. They were also directed to identify specific teams for carrying out this vital but much delayed exercise.
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