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| LA Rejects Land Bill | | | Recently Jammu and Kashmir Assembly rejected a private member’s bill seeking to recognise proprietary rights for houses illegally built on government and community lands. The Chief Minister Omar Abdullah strongly opposed the Bill saying that its passage would “open floodgates for land grab.”
The Bill was tabled by PDP MLA Wahid Para. It aimed at granting ownership or transfer rights to residents currently in possession of houses built on these lands.
However, CM Omar Abdullah opposed it which eventually led to the Assembly rejecting the bill as only two legislators voted in its favour.
It needs to be recalled that soon after the natural calamities including floods and landslides left many people homeless in Jammu and Kashmir earlier this year the government announced that it’s committed to providing housing for the landless through existing programs like the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), under which government land is allotted for house construction. It was decided that the landless families will be given 5-Marlas of land to build their houses.
Land in Jammu and Kashmir, particularly in urban centers like Srinagar and Jammu, is an immensely scarce and valuable resource. Successive governments have struggled to balance the needs of housing, infrastructure, and agriculture within limited available space.
CM Omar rightly pointed out that legalizing illegal structures would not only erode public trust in law but would also compromise environmental safety, urban planning, and the sanctity of community lands that serve essential social and ecological purposes.
The Assembly rejecting the Bill has made one thing clear that it is essential to distinguish between providing housing to the needy and legitimizing illegality. The former is a matter of social justice, while the latter undermines the very idea of governance. If illegal encroachments are legalized today, the state would lose moral and administrative authority to act against future violations. It would also weaken municipal enforcement mechanisms and embolden encroachers who, seeing leniency, might occupy more land.
The government has made it clear that illegal occupation cannot be rewarded, and it cannot be compared with the land to tiller policy introduced by the NC founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah.
Many believe that had the proposed bill seeking to recognise proprietary rights for houses illegally built on government and community lands been passed it would have helped the land mafia and illegal encroachers. |
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