Srinagar- Continuing its crackdown against land grabbers, the Jammu and Kashmir administration on Thursday retrieved over 2300 kanal of state and grazing land in the twin districts of Bandipora and Ganderbal, while a protest was held in South Kashmir’s Anantnag district over admin’s decision to evict people from state land.
The biggest anti-encroachment drive on Thursday was carried out in Bandipora district, where around 1571 kanal of government land was retrieved, an official spokesperson said. So far, he said, 28000 kanal land has been retrieved in the district, which includes 13217 kanal of state land and 15471 kanal of kahcharai.
“It was informed that in the last one week around 3000 kanals of land was retrieved from the land grabbers including 500 kanals of land in Sumbal lying adjacent to Highway having industrial utility,” the spokesperson said.
The retrieved land, he said, is also being earmarked for various public purposes like developmental projects, playgrounds, village centric amenities, industries, etc. by the revenue officials in consultation with concerned villagers/PRIs and sign boards are also erected immediately after the eviction drives.
He said that out of total 20887 of Kahcharai land, 15471 kanals of land has been retrieved amounting to 75% of Kahcharai land in the district and the concerned Tehsildars have already issued notices to the encroachers and the efforts for removal of encroachments on the rest of the land are underway in full-swing.
Deputy Commissioner, Bandipora, Dr. Owais Ahmad said that the District has created a land bank of around 25000 kanals out of which around 1550 kanals have been earmarked for Industrial Estates, 2000 kanals for Industrial Use (Out of which around 1377 Kanals stand already transferred), around 100 Kanal for Handloom/ Handicraft and other agri-based activities and around 200 Kanals for setting up of Housing Colony in Watpora Bandipora.
In the neighbouring Ganderbal district, 700 more kanal of state land was retrieved taking the total land freed from encroachers so far to 11600 kanal, the official spokesperson said.
In the drive led by Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Ganderbal, Mehraj-ud-Din Shah 718 kanal of state and Kahcharai land was retrieved in various tehsils of the district, he said.
In Kulgam district, the spokesperson said over 253 kanals of government land was freed from encroachers in the last two days. He said that Assistant Commissioner Revenue (ACR) has informed that so-far at least 40 percent of encroached land has already been retrieved in the district.
Meanwhile, a protest on Thursday was held in the Larnoo-Kokernag area in Anantnag district against the Jammu and Kashmir administration’s decision to evict people from the state land.
It was the first major protest against the J-K governor administration’s order issued on January 4 asking all illegal occupants of the state land to leave the places within seven days or face action.
The protestors assembled at Bidhard in Larnoo and raised slogans against the administration for issuing eviction notices to them, officials said.
They said the protestors submitted a memorandum to local authorities, demanding the Lt Governor administration revoke the order.
“The order has created panic among the people as it will make them homeless and landless. The land was provided to the people for making homes and cultivation. Many houses have been constructed on these lands under the PMAY,” Chaudhary Haroon Khatana, a local activist spearheading the protest, said.
He said the issue of eviction has concerned people from across Jammu and Kashmir and would hit the poor hard.
“The government should reconsider and withdraw this order as people of Jammu and Kashmir should be the main beneficiaries of its resources,” he added.
Political parties like the National Conference, PDP, Peoples Conference and others have criticised the move, saying the occupants are generally poor people who constructed their dwellings on these state land.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Ghulam Nabi Azad’s DAP on Wednesday held protests against the drive in Srinagar and Kathua on Wednesday.
Former Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah said on Wednesday that retrieving land provided to people under the Roshni scheme will be a big betrayal to them. (With PTI inputs)
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