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| Land grabbers, revenue officials loot State land | | | Arun Kumar
Early Times Report
kathua, Nov 16: J&K's Principal Accountant General (PAG) in its report for the year 2014-15 had come up with an estimate that around 20 lakh kanal of State land is still under illegal occupation.
Following this revelation, Ankur Sharma, a Civil Rights and Legal Activist had moved a petition in the J&K High Court for recovering the State lands from illegal encroachers.
Pursuant to this petition the J&K High Court had ordered the Deputy Commissioners of all the 22 districts to ensure that the encroachers were evicted. But a little seems to have moved on the ground in this regard because most of encroachers belong to political parties and are hand-in-glove with the land mafia.
A case in point is that of District Kathua where thousands of kanals of State land is under the illegal occupation of land grabbers and the incidents of further encroachment are happening on a day to day basis. Leaders of the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), a coalition partner in the ruling dispensation are involved in this menace. These influential leaders have encroached a major chunk of land over and near the Sahar Khad (Canal), Kathua.
Ironically, tainted officials of Revenue Department are hand in glove with the property dealers, political leaders and the land mafia and turn a blind eye towards their illegal encroachment. Despite having the knowledge of all these, District Administration acts like a mute spectator, and actively acquiesces in this criminal activity acting in contravention to the orders passed by the J&K High Court in this regard.
Pritam Chand, Inhabitant of Sahar Khad at Kalibari said once whole land was under canal, belonged to irrigation/ State but few blue eyed with the support of tainted Revenue officials turned the land into private property and filled plinth besides selling it at high rates thus raising huge amounts of black money.
Ankur Sharma, a Civil and Legal Rights activist while speaking to Early Times observed that the J&K High Court has passed orders pursuant to his Public Interest Litigation for evicting illegal encroachers from the State lands but they are being blatantly violated in district Kathua. He lamented the poor and lackadaisical approach of the district administration in evicting encroachers from the State lands. He further said that the State exchequer has suffered a monetary loss of around Rs 25,000 Crore on account of illegal encroachment of more than 20 Lakh Kanals of land. He stressed the need to recover State lands from illegal encroachers so that it might be utilized for serving a larger public interest.
Som Raj Majotra, BSP State Vice- President, castigated the Revenue Department for their support to the land mafia operating with the backing of local leaders.
He said the Forest land adjoining to irrigation land has also been covered and boundaries being constructed. He pointed towards the encroachment right in front of Tehsildar Kathua's residence.
He suggested verifying the age of trees and revenue records wherein tainted officials convert Government land to blue-eyed.
Majotra said Blue-eyed directed Irrigation Department to fix boundaries of canal leaving encroached land aside and ironically officials acted like puppets, channelized canals according to the desire of political leaders who also work as property dealers. He alleged on revenue officials especially field staff to earn huge money from property dealers to enjoy luxury life.
Majotra appealed Chief Minister Mufti Mohd Sayeed to set up a team of experts out of the district Kathua and briefly inquired the conversation of State land into private land. He said Coalition party in Government would not take any initiative as its senior leaders are main defaulters and provide huge fund to party.
Er Sanjeev Malhotra, XEn {Flood & Control, BE Civil} informed that letter, with 5 to 6 reminders, has been sent to district administration for encroachment in Sahar Khad but disposal is still awaited. He said Water body must be preserved that irrigates thousands of kanal agriculture land in Chann Grahan, Nagri and other down areas of district Kathua which are now badly affected due to huge encroachment in Sahar Khad. He said authority will take stern action against encroachers if Revenue Department clarifies the exact position of land encroached by blue-eyed.
When contacted DDC Kathua, Ramesh Kumar, he ensured to deploy Tehsil level officer to inquire & report total encroachment in Sahar Khad. DDC ensured to take action against defaulters either revenue officials, political leaders or any property dealers. He said a committee will be set up to verify that how much Kanals State land have been shifted to private land and how much planted and covered with concrete boundary |
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