Facing widespread criticism, J&K hits pause on anti-encroachment drive

The drive began after the government issued a circular on January 9 instructing all deputy commissioners to retrieve state, shamlat (commons used by villagers) and gha charai (grazing) land from encroachers. The anti-encroachment drive triggered protests from people in both the Jammu division and the Kashmir Valley and came under criticism from several political parties. Till it continued, the UT administration retrieved over 15 lakh kanals (over 1.87 lakh hectares) of state, shamlat, and gha charai land, according to officials.

While some officials said they had yet to reconcile the records of vast parcels of land retrieved so far, others said they had yet to identify the “big and influential encroachers” and prepare a strategy to move against them without creating a law-and-order problem.

Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference president Dr Farooq Abdullah is said to have partially built his residence on state land in Bhatindi on the outskirts of Jammu city. Senior revenue officials on terms of anonymity had said earlier that they were examining legal issues involved in the matter as the house was among Abdullah’s various other properties attached by the Enforcement Department in the Jammu Kashmir Cricket Association money-laundering case.

Though Lt Governor Manoj Sinha and his administration have said the drive is not against poor people who built a house or a shop but against the influential and the rich. But the explanation seems to have found no takers amid large-scale demolitions and sealing of properties by the officials.

On February 4, stone pelting occurred at Jammu’s Malik Market following the demolition of a commercial establishment allegedly built on state land. The police have so far arrested nine people, including prominent businessman Sajjad Ahmed Beigh and Doda District Development Council member Mehraj Malik, who is a member of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

While PDP president and former CM Mehbooba Mufti has accused the BJP of turning J&K into Afghanistan by using bulldozers to demolish the homes of people who are poor and marginalised, former CM and NC vice president Omar Abdullah has urged the government to make the bulldozer its last resort and give people a chance to prove their claims about the land they possess. He has called on the UT administration to follow proper procedures when dealing with the issue. J&K Apni Party chairman Altaf Bukhari has warned the administration that officials undertaking the anti-encroachment drive will be made answerable for their actions after the UT gets an elected government, Jammu Kashmir People’s Conference chairman Sajad Lone has accused the administration of creating homelessness.

Though the BJP has not publicly criticised the drive, its senior leaders have not supported the drive, fearing it will erode their support base. Several senior party leaders have called on Sinha from time to time to demand that the administration not go after people who are poor.

History of land encroachment

Though anti-encroachment drives were initiated by successive governments in J&K from time to time in the past, this is the first time that a drive at such a massive scale has been launched against the rich and the influential, irrespective of their party affiliations.

Encroachment of state land was highlighted for the first time by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India in its 2014 audit report while referring to irregularities in the implementation of the (now defunct) Jammu and Kashmir State Lands (Vesting of Ownership to Occupants) Act, 2001, also known as Roshni Act.

The last Dogra ruler of Jammu and Kashmir was the first in the pre-independence era to introduce land reforms and through his Council’s resolution No 22 (dated August 22, 1924) ordered that “Nautor Najaiz (illegal occupants)” of state land be treated as “tenants at will’’. This was followed by another order (Raj Tilak Boon No. 4) dated September 20, 1927, whereby unassessed state land (khalsa sarkar) equivalent to 100 per cent of the cultivated proprietary land by zamindars (landlords) was declared as Shamlat Deh in both the Jammu and Kashmir provinces.

The process of agrarian reform continued from time to time during Dogra rule and even thereafter, with successive governments granting ownership rights to people on saffron-growing state land in Pulwama and Srinagar vide cabinet order No. 809-C dated September 3, 1952; and allotting evacuee and government land to displaced persons from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir vide Cabinet order No 397 dated April 18, 1951. In 1954, “nautors (illegal possession)” of state land was regularised by granting the status of tenants to locals occupying government land.

But, encroachment of state land assumed alarming proportions with the onset of militancy when people from villages started moving towards the towns and cities in both Kashmir and the Jammu division. With little land available to accommodate a large number of migrants because of an existing ban on the sale and purchase of agricultural land — even among the locals in view of a government order issued in 1973 — these people settled wherever they thought was safe.

With governments at the time busy fighting militancy, the land mafia took advantage of the situation to occupy vast chunks of state land and later, in collaboration with some revenue officials, sold and resold such land to people. Local villagers also, in the absence of any elected village panchayats between 1978 to 2001, sold them with the help of revenue officials.

To raise funds for the construction of hydroelectric projects, the Farooq Abdullah government enacted the Roshni Act in 2001. It offered the transfer of ownership rights of state land to “illegal occupants” subject to their payment of money at the then prevalent market rates. The offer was applicable to only those who had encroached upon state land by 1990. The PDP-Congress government led by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed amended the law in 2004, revising the cut-off date from 1990 to 2004.

The process of transfer of ownership rights of public land to their unauthorised occupants started in 2007 after the then Ghulam Nabi Azad government framed rules and revised the cut-off date for encroachment of land to 2007. But, the scheme failed to raise the desired funds as most of the land was categorised by the Azad government as agricultural and given to its occupants free of cost. It also gave huge discounts to the occupants of the remaining land.

Governor Satya Pal Malik repealed the Roshni Act in 2018 and the Jammu and Kashmir High Court in 2020 declared the Jammu and Kashmir State Land (Vesting of Ownership to the Occupants) Act, 2001, as completely unconstitutional.