Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Aug 3: Defence land running into several crores has been encroached upon in Jammu and Kashmir by several agencies and civilians, mostly during the period of militancy, an official document of the Defence Ministry has revealed.
The document, which is in possession of the Excelsior, revealed that as many as 730 acres prime land of the Defence has been encroached upon at various places in Jammu and Kashmir.
Value of the land has been estimated into several crores.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the Defence authorities haven’t estimated exact value of the encroached land as its cost varied from place to place. However, as per the rough estimates, cost of the land might run into several crores, they said.
Majority of the encroached land was located in two divisions of Jammu and Kashmir while the encroachments were very less in Ladakh division.
The Defence authorities, according to sources, have taken up the matter of encroachment of their land with concerned authorities of the State Government repeatedly for eviction of encroachers and restoration of land to them.
Sources revealed that the Defence authorities project requirements of land before the State Government for specific purposes including military exercises, establishment of camps, units etc. After nod by the Ministry of Defence, the land is allotted to the Defence authorities by the State Government.
“It has been seen that when the Army authorities are on routine exercises, military practices, swapping places with new units, the civilians change pillars of defence land and encroach upon them. In some cases, the civilians refuse to handover the land allotted to Defence authorities in the absence of adequate compensation to them by the civilian authorities,’’ sources said, adding that the Defence authorities were vigorously pursuing the matter for eviction of encroached land with concerned quarters of the State Government.
They said in some cases the civil authorities have assured the Defence that the land will be evicted and restored to them shortly while in other cases, they have expressed helplessness in restoration of land due to varied reasons, most apparently fearing protests from the civilians, whose land had been acquired for handing over to the Defence authorities.
According to sources, most of the land encroachment of the Defence has taken place during the militancy period when the Army was busy in search operations, military exercises and some units had moved to the Line of Control (LoC).
“It was at this time that the land encroachers struck, removed pillars of the Army and grabbed the land. The task was executed mostly by the civilians,’’ sources said.
Admitting that encroachment of as high as 730 acres of Defence land in the State was a serious issue, sources said the matter has already been taken up by the concerned Defence authorities with local administration and the Government at the highest level for restoration of land.
However, they said, it was a time consuming process to get 730 acres of land evicted from the civilians.
“It could take time,’’ they added and said the Government and civil administration, in some cases, too had to address the issues of the civilians before getting the encroachers evicted from the land.
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