Govt halts anti-encroachment drive in J&K

Srinagar, Feb 19: The Government has halted a month-long anti-encroachment drive in Jammu and Kashmir while the revenue department has been directed to furnish status reports of retrieved land, officials said.
A senior Revenue Department official told Rising Kashmir that there are clear directions from higher-ups to halt the anti-encroachment drive in both Kashmir and Jammu regions and retrieved land be digitized, and geo-tagged.
“We have been directed to furnish a status report of various types of State land retrieved during the anti-encroachment drives till 15th February,” he said.
The official stated that the eviction drive has not stopped but retrieved land will be geo-tagged and digitized. If we leave it open, people will again encroach it, he said.
The official said the retrieved land will be used for the welfare of the people. For decades this land was never retrieved by the government due to their vested interests.
“To monitor the entire process, the revenue and administration departments have been directed to allocate retrieved land to departments, so that Detailed Project Reports (DPR)’s could be finalized earliest,” he said.
The official said so far encroachments were removed from across 20 districts of Jammu and Kashmir. While few structures were demolished by the authorities, he said.
On January 9, the Revenue Department issued a circular stating that “all Deputy Commissioners (DC) shall ensure that all encroachment on State land, including Roshni land and Kaccharie (grazing) land, are removed to the extent of 100% by January 31”.
It asked the DCs to draw a daily anti-encroachment drive plan, personally monitor it and submit a report by 5 p.m. every day to the Administration Department.
On Saturday, Divisional commissioner Vijay Kumar Biduri Saturday said the formal order ‘exempting’ poor from the ongoing demolition drive will be issued, when there is a ‘comprehensive’ policy in place.
Talking to the reporters during his visit to city center Lal Chowk here to review ongoing projects being undertaken under the Smart City mission, Bidhuri said everything is taken into consideration by the government before taking a final call.
“Government is working on it as this is a policy matter and when the government frames a policy everything is taken into consideration, including welfare of people,” Bidhuri said.
He said the drive too was launched for the welfare of the people. He also reiterated Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha’s assurance that the poor will not be touched during the drive.
“If LG Sahab has assured that nothing wrong will happen that means nothing will happen, be sure about it,” he said.
Earlier, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha said that common masses and poor people wouldn’t be touched during the ongoing drive launched by the Government to retrieve State land from encroachers.
“Common man and poor people wouldn’t be touched by the administration. The Government is concerned to safeguard the interests of poor people,” he said.
LG Sinha said that the influential people misused their positions and encroached on State land in violation of the laws.