Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Apr 12: Astonishing it may sound but it is a fact that over 66,000 kanal of State land, which was transferred to the Jammu Development Authority (JDA) more than 10 years back, has not been demarcated on ground by the Revenue Department till date thereby rendering such a huge chunk of land vulnerable to the encroachments by the mafia.
As more than 50 communications from the JDA have failed to wake up the Revenue Department authorities from the deep slumber, the Authority has taken up the matter with the concerned authorities of the Revenue Department under Public Service Guarantee Act (PSGA) for time bound action. This is for the first time that any Government agency has made use of PSGA against Government Department for getting any issue sorted out.
According to the information available with EXCELSIOR, a total of 77124 kanal and 5 marlas of State or Nazool land was transferred to Jammu Development Authority by virtue of Government Order dated January 28, 1973 followed by subsequent Government orders issued by the Revenue Department and under provisions of J&K State Land (vesting of Ownership to the Occupants) Act, 2001 read along with SRO-263 dated August 9, 2004 respectively.
Out of 77124 kanal and 5 marlas of transferred land, only 7653 kanal and 17 marlas has been procedurally handed over after authentic demarcation by the Revenue Department and the remaining 66436 kanal and one marla of land, which constitute 86% of the total transferred land, has been transferred only on paper without any mandatory demarcation. “Due to this, such a huge land is either already under encroachment or vulnerable to encroachment by land mafia”, official sources said.
In response to a question, sources said that in the absence of proper demarcation of such a huge chunk of land, the Jammu Development Authority has been finding it difficult to properly protect the same from the encroachers. “Most of such un-demarcated land is on such Khasra Numbers on which either there are recorded entries of others in revenue documents or is physically encroached upon even prior to transfer to JDA in some cases”, sources added.
Due to the non-serious approach of the Revenue Department towards mandatory demarcation of the land transferred to the JDA, land grabbers are actively operating in these areas, sources said while disclosing that un-demarcated land falls in villages of Birpur and Raipur Koular in Samba district and Belicharana, Nagrota Khanpur, Rakh Raipur, Sitni, Kamini, Kot Jagir, Jagti and Ratokh Dhok etc in Jammu district.
The intensity of Revenue Department’s non-seriousness towards demarcation of the land transferred to JDA can be gauged from the fact that more than 50 official communications were sent to concerned revenue officers of Jammu and Samba by the Director Land Management, Tehsildars of JDA Zone-A and Zone-B and other officers. This also indicates that Revenue Department officers are not really interested in getting such a huge chunk of land actually transferred to JDA and the possibility of their conniving with the land mafia cannot be ruled out.
Questioning the intentions behind delaying the demarcation exercise for more than 10 years, sources said, “only ulterior motives can be the reason for ignoring large number of official communications of the JDA by the Revenue Department officers”, adding “due to the reluctance of the Revenue Department to properly demarcate the land already transferred to JDA nobody knows whether the transferred land remains vacant or has already been encroached upon by the mafia. The true picture would emerge only after Revenue Department accords deserving priority to this mandatory exercise”.
According to the sources in the Divisional Commissioner’s office, the JDA, as a last resort, has taken up this matter with the concerned district revenue authorities of Jammu and Samba under the Public Service Guarantee Act (PSGA) for time bound action with proper information to the Chief Secretary, Secretary, Housing and Urban Development Department and Divisional Commissioner.
“It is for the first time ever since the enactment of this revolutionary piece of legislation that any Government agency has used PSGA to ensure timely action from Government department”, sources said, adding “as per the provisions of the Act, the Revenue Department authorities are now required to carry out demarcation of land within stipulated time-frame of 30 days failing which JDA will move First Appellate and Second Appellate Authorities”.
Now, it is interesting to see whether Revenue Department will meet the PSGA deadline and actually demarcate the land on ground to help the JDA in saving it from the encroachers.
The land, which has been sought to be demarcated under PSGA, falls under the Niabats of Gole, Gho Manhasan, Bhalwal, Jammu Khas, Muthi, Bahu, Satwari-Digiana, Nagrota, Jammu, Vijaypur, Bari Brahamana,
The JDA has sought the personal intervention of Divisional Commissioner Jammu for timely completion of the demarcation of entire un-demarcated land.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel