A major phenomenon pervading life style of people in the country after economic boom about two decades ago is that of migration of people from rural to urban areas. This movement has occurred more seriously in some of the States whereas in some more States it has been less volatile. We have to take into view that after independence, a huge task of development awaited the nation. Development has numerous aspects. For development the pre-requisites are land, labour, capital and organization. Development meant establishing large industries that would meet the requirements of the vast population. The population also began increasing at a rapid pace. Industries were established closer to the outskirts of the urban areas and towns. Rural population mostly unemployed began moving towards the urban areas to find employment and means of sustenance. Expansion of industries meant more land had to be made available and more land meant converting agricultural land to non-agricultural land so that towns, factories and industries could be established on the available land. There was high demand for more land and the prices began to escalate. But its negative effect was that agricultural production was reduced.
Thus we find that urbanization is a complicated matter and conversion of land from agricultural to non-agricultural land is a necessity which needs to be regulated. In the beginning, the Government did not take the conversion of land seriously. However, as the matter began to become serious on account of various complications, the Government thought it necessary to take stock of things and frame certain rules which would mean controlling the process of converting the land. As far as our State is concerned, under Section 133-A of the J&K Land Revenue Act, no agriculture land can be put to any other use without obtaining prior permission of the Revenue Minister. Moreover, under Section 13 of the J&K Agrarian Reforms Act, 1976, prior permission of the Revenue Minister or an officer duly authorized by him in this behalf is required for conversion of agricultural land. This being the law it was expected that it would go a long way in dissuading prospective sellers and buyers from sale-purchase of agricultural land. Yet in practice, things were not what these appeared. People interested in converting the land, whether buyers or sellers, began approaching the Revenue Minister and used influence as well as political clout to get things done even if it contravened the Agricultural Act. In this way large scale corruption in Revenue Department became a common practice. Actually no uniform rule was there with the Revenue Department that would become the guideline in deciding cases of land conversion. It has to be understood that even the Government itself needed to have the guidelines when agricultural land was needed for conversion to non-agricultural land. Revenue officers use different yardsticks for different cases and most of the cases were decided as per the sweet will of the Revenue Minister. Scramble for more and more land to be used for commercial purposes intensified. People with money would like to establish residential colonies, factories, brick kilns, shopping complexes, community halls and other commercial establishments. Their enterprises were facilitated by bank loans advanced easily by the banks. This led not only pressure on services but to air and noise pollution as well. Thus the department of environment also came into play.
Finally, after long negligence, the State Government awoke to an important situation. The Revenue Minister ordered constituting a team of revenue officers who have drawn the blue print for proper mechanism that would regulate the matter of conversion of agricultural land into non-agricultural land. Though some laws governing the matter of conversion of land from having one status to another do exist, yet these are not comprehensive in nature that would take the entire gamut of conversion into account. This necessitated the creation of a mechanism to regulate the entire matter. The new plan envisages a detailed mechanism set-up right from enquiry on the application seeking conversion of agriculture land for non-agricultural purposes to the approval by the Administrative Department.
As far as change of land use in Municipal/Urban areas is concerned, the concerned development authority will have to forward the application to the respective Deputy Commissioners within two days for accord of permission in accordance with the land use specified in the Master Plan. However, in case of land falling outside the jurisdiction of Urban areas/Municipal limits, the applicant can directly approach the Deputy Commissioner. This is the crux of the new mechanism and this process has been declared as time bound meaning that the entire scheme has to become operative within a specific period of time. We appreciate the idea of the Revenue Minister and his staff that the entire application for conversion of land should have a time frame and should not be left indefinitely. Yet, one wonders whether the new mechanism will be with lesser hassles or not.
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