Only Kashmir Feature
It is an established fact that property and land laws of any region are pivotal to its progress and development. Land and property law enforcement help and is in fact a key component of the development and progress in the direction of any area of the globe.
For many decades in Jammu and Kashmir, the dynasty infected politic permits for land grabbing in an unjust and brutal manner.
It is a happy hour for the people of Jammu and Kashmir that we are witnessing reform of the rotten land and property laws.
Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha had affirmed some months back that necessary changes were being made in land laws to benefit the common man as earlier legislations were ”very regressive”.
”The (old) land laws were very regressive and not framed with the interests of the people in mind. The changes which are necessary for benefiting the common man are being made,” Sinha told reporters on the sidelines of a function. The LG was responding to a question about land leaseholders in Jammu and Kashmir being asked to return the possession to the government.
It was stated 40 to 45 percent of litigation in the Union Territory was due to land records. ”We have carried out digitization of the land records. Once the process is complete, the people here can live in peace,” he added.
Masses and experts are happy that the land mafia too is being crushed which was using the land of Jammu and Kashmir in an illegal manner for their profit at the behest of a few blue-eyed persons. After abrogation, an eagle eye is maintained to crush such elements.
The central Government and Union Territory Government have laid their focus on the fact that New land rules bring J&K on par with the rest of India; the old law was regressive.
In October 2020, the Union Home Ministry notified that any Indian citizen can purchase non-agricultural land in the new Union Territory. Subsequently, the administration notified a new set of rules that allowed the change of title of agricultural land to non-agricultural on fulfilling conditions.
The Union Territory Government has also done a great job by getting tough on the notorious Roshni Scheme. The Roshni scheme continued and people started paying for the lands they held.
In 2005, however, Ghulam Nabi Azad-led government decided to vest proprietary rights to anyone holding state land but without paying anything. In order to appease the land grabbers, the Azad government made it mandatory for revenue officials to deliver the ownership papers on these lands to the people at their homes. It devoured the purpose of the scheme and reduced it to a historic racket.
On October 9, 2020, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court declared the Roshni Act unconstitutional, declaring all the land transfers made under the Act null and void. While the court directed the UT administration to compile lists of those who had received state land under the Act along with the “details of State land which was in illegal and unauthorized occupation”, it also asked for these lists to be posted on an official website “with full identity of encroachers.” Following a hue and cry, two months later, the UT administration filed a petition in the High Court on December 7, 2020, seeking a review of the court’s October judgment. On January 25, 2021, the UT administration submitted before the Supreme Court that no coercive action would be taken against persons who have approached the top court against the High Court verdict.
It has been a historical epoch since the Centre put Jammu and Kashmir on the real estate map of India by enabling any Indian citizen to buy land in the union territory where non-residents could not own immovable property until a year ago.
The word “permanent resident of the state” was removed from Section 17 of the Jammu and Kashmir Development Act by the government on October 27, when it published the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization (Adaptation of Central Laws) Third Order, 2020. This section concerns the sale of land.
The government began the process of creating land banks and also initiated a campaign against encroachments on properties of Pandits who fled the armed insurgency that erupted in Kashmir. But the work came to a halt in the wake of targeted attacks on members of the minority community and migrant laborers.
