As per a rough estimate, as much as 18 lakh Kanals of Government land has been encroached upon in Jammu and Kashmir State. If a proper and an unerring survey of usurped and illegally possessed Government land is made, the figures could be alarming. Land mafia, goons and influential people often connive to grab, encroach, sell clandestinely or deal in other ways, in order to make pecuniary gains of Government land, Panchayat land and Forest land in Jammu and Kashmir. Eviction, though cumbersome, is not that difficult if there is strong but sincere will power to tighten the noose around such elements that fall in the group of thieves and usurpers of Government land.
Unfortunately in our State, there is lack of a political will to come heavily on thieving of vast chunks of Government land and if eviction process is initiated under pressure from various quarters even for the name sake, paroxysm of communal bias and fracases of alleged harassment, “dislocation and excesses committed” are the known faces of the stratagem adopted to make the entire process of eviction turn into a naught. It is quite unfortunate that digitalization of land records has not been completed in the state so far and this inordinate delay, though unexplained, is indirectly encouraging the attempts of encroachments and trespassing of Government lands. That needed to be probed into in order to clear any mist or speculations of obvious attributed motives.
Governor N N Vohra has voiced deep concern over such encroachments and decided to adopt a befitting tough approach to free such encroached land from the illegal possession of land mafia and other usurpers who muscle their way into and adopt illegal tactics to become infringers and violators, with impunity of Revenue, Forest and Municipal laws . Their shell becomes harder with each passing day as those who are mandated to protect, preserve and secure the public property fail to discharge their duty for whichever reasons and that is unfortunate and reprehensible.
Governor has directed Divisional Commissioners of Jammu and Kashmir to collect all relevant data and information latest by August 15 this year in the form of a list of major instances and initiate time bound action for eviction of such encroachments. Not only in the issue of Government, Panchayat and Forest lands but District Collectors have been directed to map the encroachments over Dal, Wular and Nageen lakes and other water bodies, National Highways and public roads in their jurisdictions.
Encroachments were directed to be removed in respect of major roads, public places, commercial hubs especially those causing obstructions and nuisance. The action is directed to be taken in time – bound system. Since many a time, the emboldened encroachers resist eviction drives usually accompanied by creating scenes and resorting to violence , Police Department has been directed to provide all required assistance to the administration in this respect. The other form to resist the eviction process is to obtain stay and other restraint orders from the courts by the encroachers. That scenario is proposed to be addressed by constituting a special court / Tribunal to hear all such cases to circumvent any delays in eviction process.
Noteworthy feature is the aspect of follow up and reviewing of the directives issued and according this important aspect of close monitoring to the issue, underlines its importance of measuring how quick and how much successful the implementation results were. That speaks for the entire process of data preparation by August 15 and reviewing of results by August 20 this year. It may sound idealizing the subject matter but it is indicative of how things could move and how administration could be made responsible and accountable.
In another notable and much longed for decision about removing of illegal constructions near bed of River Tawi , Division Bench of State High Court comprising Justice Tashi Rabstan and Justice Sanjay Kumar Gupta has directed the Divisional Commissioner Jammu to ensure removal of illegal construction near bed of River Tawi and complete ban on extraction of minerals. Since such daring and flagrant constructions cannot be made unless there was a well established nexus between the mafia and some unscrupulous Government servants , the DB has directed that the Chief Secretary should take stern action against those officers and officials who have all along been facilitating such illegal constructions.
The allegations made and fears expressed by many lovers of this river about larger involvement of Government agencies in the entire illegal activities have been vindicated by the Division Bench by observing that there was a “strong nexus” between mining mafia and the authorities of Jammu Municipal Corporation , Jammu Development Authority , Geology and Mining Department as well as Police authorities. The Hon’ble Court had, by an order, put a ban on such activities around the bed of River Tawi right from Nagrota to Belicharana but despite the ban, illegal constructions were going on unabated and the Bench took a strong notice of that violation. Accordingly, the Bench has directed Divisional Commissioner Jammu to personally convene a meeting of concerned officers of Police Department and all concerned agencies including Departments of Irrigation and Flood control, ERA and National Building Construction Corporation to ascertain as to whether the orders passed by the court on different dates in 2016 and 2017 have been complied with or not.
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