Srinagar, Apr 06: The Jammu and Kashmir administration has retrieved 15.83 lakh kanals of state land during the first three months of this year, out of a total of 22.40 lakh kanals of government property that is under encroachment..
According to the recently issued J&K Economic report, 15.83 lakh kanals of land have been retrieved from encroachers in the ongoing anti-encroachment drive,, which was launched in the first week of January this year across the UT.
“The land regained is 71 per cent of the total encroached land in the UT,” the government stated, adding most of the encroached land was retrieved from influential persons,” it said.
The report further says that an effective grievance redressal mechanism has been put in place being monitored from the top administration.
The land has been recovered from former ministers, ex legislators and serving and retired bureaucrats.
On March 20, Lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha said the drive to evict illegal occupants from the government land in Jammu and Kashmir will resume and the retrieved land would be used to fuel industrial revolution in the union territory.
The UT administration had launched the eviction drive in January this year but had to stop it following protests.
“The big tracts of land will be given for setting up industry. The smaller plots will be used to create facilities like playfields. The small patches of land will be used as burial ground for poor people who don’t even get land for last rites,” the LG said.
OnFebruary 15, the Government halted an anti-encroachment drive and the revenue department was directed to furnish status reports of retrieved land.
In January this year, the government had directed all 20 Deputy Commissioners of J&K to ensure that all encroachments on State land, grazing and Roshni Act land are removed by January 31, 2023. However, the deadline was later extended.
