Srinagar, Mar 20: The Jammu and Kashmir government on Thursday said that there is no provision for compensating landowners whose land is acquired for road construction under major schemes like PMGSY, NABARD, and CRIF. However, limited funds have been allocated under the UT Capex for land acquisition, structural compensation, forest clearances, and utility shifting, which are decided on a case-by-case basis.
In response to an unstarred question by MLA Sajjad Shaheen, the government said that under PMGSY guidelines, the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) provides only the construction cost on a 90:10 funding basis. States and Union Territories are responsible for providing encumbrance-free land.
Recognizing the financial burden, the central government had earlier sanctioned a one-time fund of Rs 1,287 crore, including Rs 577 crore under PMRP and Rs 710 crore from the Programme Fund, to cover private and forest land compensation for PMGSY projects in J&K.
The UT government has also allocated Rs 100 crore for forest compensation over the last five years. However, there remains a pending demand of approximately ₹1,500 crore for land compensation in cases where awards have been passed by revenue authorities.
The government admitted that the payment of land compensation under the UT Sector and Centrally Sponsored Schemes remains one of the biggest challenges faced by the Public Works Department (PWD).
While the government provides alternate non-forest land to the Forest Department for compensatory afforestation when forest land is acquired for road construction, there is no policy in place to provide state land to private landowners who lose their land to such projects.
Currently, no proposal is under consideration to allot alternate state land to affected landowners on the same basis as compensatory afforestation land for the Forest Department.
