High court of Jammu and Kashmir has ordered that shamilat land meant for cattle grazing known as Kacharia and State land under illegal occupancy of people in one or other form shall be retrieved. This land is meant for common purposes and can be used for constructing schools and other government departments and play grounds etc. At the time of settlement about one hundred years ago this land was recorded as Sri Sarkar Dulatmandar meaning our government is wealthy and rich as it has enough land and can utilize it for common purposes of its citizens. It was and is the responsibility of the government of time to look after it properly and if at any time finds that this treasure is illegally occupied by anyone may have and can take action against. Few decades ago people were having a kind of fear that if this kind of land will be occupied sarkar will take action against .But from last three decades people first only encroached these patches either by fencing or planting fruit bearing trees and from few years later on starting constructing residential houses and later on commercial constructions on such patches.
Revenue department is the care taker of these lands. Many poor people have also constructed residential houses on these patches and rich people have also illegally occupied these patches for one or another purpose. It should be mentioned here that there is a provision that if anybody has requirement of this kind of land it can be interchanged with the propriety land by a mutation after completion of formalities but it is for selective cases and this time it can be utilised for the benefit of those people who may have constructed residential houses on these patches. Revenue department is on its toes as the deadline is approaching nearer. Each day statements are issued that such lands were retrieved today and the remaining will be retrieved on war footing basis and the graph will reach zero before deadline and some revenue officers have started issuing notices to the encroachers. Really a good step as such land is used for different public purposes. This author sees that tehsil authorities are issuing statements daily in this regard and when one examines these statements and if they are based on facts then it looks the goal is near. But if the statements are like the preparation of Goshwara Jiniswar then the situation will be like previous one after dead line. This author appreciates revenue authorities for this hardworking but statements should be based on facts not Kagzi Goray and the authorities should think about residential houses constructed on these lands by the poor people as it is a matter of concern and only serving a notice to these downtrodden people is not a proper way out. Think before Act.
(The author is presently an official dealing with record keeping at DC Office Annantnag. The views, opinions, facts, assumptions, presumptions and conclusions expressed in this article are author’s own and aren’t necessarily in accord with the views of “Kashmir Horizon”.)
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