*No encroachment in Leh, Kargil distts
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Mar 15: After being reprimanded by the High Court, Government has issued directions to all the concerned field functionaries to take immediate steps for getting the encroached State/common land evicted from the unauthorized occupants across the State.
This information was furnished by none else than the Chief Secretary, Mohammad Iqbal Khanday to the State High Court in compliance to the earlier directions of the Division Bench. He has also assured the High Court that outcome of these directions would be placed before it.
In the latest status report submitted to the High Court today, the Chief Secretary said, “the revenue field functionaries have furnished the requisite information of 20 districts of the State vis-à-vis State land under unauthorized occupation”, adding “in respect of the Leh and Kargil district, no un-authorized occupation on the State land has been reported. However, an area of State land measuring 62657 kanals and 16 marlas is under the occupation of the defence forces in Leh district but the same is under process of formal acquisition/requisition”.
Stating that Government recognized the fact of enmasse un-authorized occupation of State lands, the Chief Secretary said that with a view to regularizing the occupation, the Government brought a legislation called the J&K State Lands (Vesting of Ownership to the Occupants), Act, 2001, which was amended from time to time.
“Under this Act, around 3.48 lakh kanals of State land was approved by the respective District/Divisional Level Committees for vesting in the occupants, which includes nearly 3.40 lakh kanals of agricultural land as well”, Mr Khanday said, adding “despite various inbuilt rebates and incentives, a large number of occupants didn’t deposit the price determined for vesting of ownership on the State land under occupation, which though still remains under their possession and in some cases issues have been raised through various legal remedies particularly writ petitions pending before Srinagar Bench of the High Court”.
The Chief Secretary further said, “apart from the J&K Land Revenue Act, 1996, there are various other laws in place to deal with the removal of encroachments from State/common land, which include the J&K Common Lands Act, 1956 and the J&K Public Premises (Eviction of unauthorized Occupants) Act, 1988 etc”, adding “even pursuant to the directions of the Supreme Court of India passed in Civil Appeal titled Jagpal Singh Versus State of Punjab and Others, a comprehensive scheme has already been formulated and notified to provide for eviction of illegal/unauthorized occupation on the common lands”.
Stating that these laws/rules/policies are in place in the State, which clearly prohibit the encroachment on the State/common land and action is being taken by the revenue field functionaries by taking recourse to the provisions of laws in vogue in the State, Chief Secretary said, “instructions have been issued to all the concerned field functionaries to take immediate action in accordance with the existing laws and result will be placed before the Court”.
“The Government is committed to discourage the occupation of State land by encroachers and all efforts are being made in this regard through concerned agencies to evict the un-authorized persons from their illegal occupation of the land in accordance with the laws in force at present”, he further said, adding “it is the future course of action of the Government to be followed by competent statutory authorities to evict all un-authorized persons from their illegal occupation of the State land”.
About the 76,000 applications under Roshni Scheme still pending disposal with various Deputy Commissioners, Mr Khanday said, “the matter is being reviewed and once a decision to deal with such cases is taken, future course of action would follow regarding eviction of encroachments on such land in accordance with the laid down legal framework”.
It is pertinent to mention here that on September 4, 2013, the Division Bench comprising Chief Justice M M Kumar and Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur had issued directions for divulging the names of the persons, who had encroached over 20 lakh kanal State/common land in all the 22 districts.
However, following no response from the Government, the DB on February 19, 2014 directed the Chief Secretary to file response before next date of hearing or appear in person before the court to explain his conduct. The DB had even directed the Chief Secretary to apprise the court about the future course of action concerning the huge encroachment on the State land across Jammu and Kashmir.
Meanwhile, in a separate status report, Deputy Commissioner Kathua said that encroachment has been removed from 179 kanals and 4 marlas of land in village Chak Bhagwana of Hiranagar tehsil.
“The illegal encroachers have been evicted from the land and signboard has been installed which reflects that the land is Kahcharai under Khasra No.665/564, 666/564, 719/671/564, 720/671/564/670/ 561 and the land has been kept under Supurdari of Sarpach namely Rakesh Kumar”, said the Deputy Commissioner, who personally visited the area on March 6, 2014.
“The entry has been made by the concerned Patwari attached by Naib Tehsildar concerned in the revenue record”, he said, adding “directions have been issued that if someone again interferes in the land legal action will be taken against them”.
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