J&K halts demolition, officers told to ‘carefully handle’ drive

In addition, he has also directed that “geo-referencing and digitisation” of all land retrieved should be completed at the earliest. “No further action shall be taken without consolidation of actions so far,” read the minutes of the February 15 meeting of the Committee of Secretaries chaired by Mehta.

In this meeting with the administrative secretaries, Mehta also sought proposals for utilisation of the retrieved government land from various departments of the UT administration. Secretary (Revenue), who holds the charge of land, was asked to furnish a ‘status report’ on the agricultural/ commercial, rural/ urban state land retrieved during the recent anti-encroachment drive across Jammu and Kashmir.

On January 9, the UT’s Revenue Department had sought a report from District Commissioners in all districts on all encroachments on state land “including Roshni land and kahcharaie (grazing) land” and issued instructions that they be removed “to the extent of 100% by the end of January 2023.” Divisional Commissioners were also tasked with daily monitoring of the drive.

Anti-encroachment drives then commenced across the UT with demolitions and bulldozers becoming a familiar sight. The move drew political backlash with former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah questioning the forcing of bulldozers through people’s homes without due notice, and People’s Conference President Sajad Lone accusing the UT administration of “creating homelessness” in J&K.

After this, the demolition drive seemed to have come to a halt. Sources in the government said that “notices to those encroaching state land were being sent and in any case the lists were available online. The High Court had sought this information so we had provided.”

An official, who did not wish to be named, said, “No one has the right to occupy public property for themselves. The records are getting digitised and geo-referenced. Other than the directions of the LG (Lieutenant Governor) pertaining to providing some relief to those with small land holdings, no one else will be able to keep any state land.”

Without providing any estimation of the state land under illegal possession, the official said, “People have to understand the magnitude of the problem. And someone had to take this up at some point of time.”

In the meeting with the secretaries, the administration also discussed comments on social media by officials of the government. Mehta is learnt to have said that “employees are governed by conduct rules” and that these “do not permit them posting anything prejudicial to the government on their social media accounts”. “Any employee found violating conduct rules be proceeded against by the concerned authorities,” the minutes from the meeting read.