Srinagar: Forty-one-year old Sameer, who refused to share his second name, set up his scrap business in Srinagar’s Mehjoor Nagar in 2002. Over 20 years later, on 7 February, his shop, along with other scrap dealers’ shops that collectively employed about 150 people, was bulldozed by the Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) revenue department as part of the ongoing anti-encroachment drive.
On January 9, the J&K administration issued a circular directing the revenue officials to retrieve the encroached government land and Kahcharai (grazing land).
The government land includes the land occupied under the Roshni Act, officially known as Jammu and Kashmir State Land (Vesting of Ownership to the Occupants) Act, 2001, which was declared “unconstitutional” by the J&K High Court in 2020.
So far, 1.87 lakh acres of land has been freed as part of the anti-encroachment drive in the Union Territory, according to a report.
Last month, after widespread protests, Jammu and Kashmir Governor Manoj Sinha had said in a statement that under this drive, bulldozers will run only on the land of “influential and powerful people” and “no poor or common man will be touched”.
However, the situation on the ground tells a different story. Over a month since the drive started, protests have escalated in both Jammu and Kashmir, with people alleging that it is not just the rich but common people, owning small businesses and shopkeepers who are being targeted.
Adding to people’s woes, a list with names of those whose properties were likely to be demolished started circulating on social media, according to a report. However, the authorities clarified that no such circular was issued by them and registered a case against miscreants.
Meanwhile, standing in his shop that is now bulldozed, Sameer says, “Six of us ran our scrap businesses here, 150 others worked for us, of which 100 were from outside [Kashmir] and 50 locals. The administration started bulldozing our shops without giving any notice. This was our livelihood.”
On Monday, Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba’s offshoot and banned terror outfit, The Resistance Front (TRF) threatened to kill “anyone associated with the revenue department” involved in the anti-encroachment drive. Following the threat, security around the demolition sites has been stepped up.
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Roshni Act & administration’s plan
In the year 2001, the then government of Jammu and Kashmir led by National Conference’s Farooq Abdullah came up with a law under which people were handed over the ownership of the state land under their possession at a price decided by the government. The cut-off date was set to be 1990. The revenue thus collected was to be used for hyperpower projects in the state. To that effect, a target to collect Rs 25,000 crore was set by the government by transferring 20 lakhs of kanal of state land. The Act was amended twice, in 2004 and 2007.
The The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report in 2014 revealed the financial irregularities in implementation of the Act. In 2018, the then governor of the erstwhile state of J&K Satyapal Malik repealed the Act as “it failed to achieve its desired objectives and over reports of misuse of some its provisions.
In 2020, the J&K High court declared the Act as “illegal, unconstitutional and unsustainable”. The HC called it the ‘loot to own’ policy and rejected the ownership of the land taken by the people under the Act.
Regarding the ongoing demolition and sealing drive, Qazi Sarwar, Additional Commissioner, Kashmir, told ThePrint Friday, “We are working according to the order and what L-G had said, the government will not touch the poor. But at the moment, we cannot give you any figures. We have just received the data from every district (of encroached land) and the process is going on.”
The Revenue Department Commissioner, Vijay Kumar Bidhuri, was not available for a comment.
Fear among common people
L-G Sinha and administration’s statements have done little to build trust among the residents of the Valley, who are perpetually living under fear of their properties and business establishments being the next target of the ongoing drive.
Bilal Ahmed, who ran a scrap business with Sameer in Mehjoor Nagar, has not been able to sleep and eat properly for the past two days. He said that he had bought this land by selling his mother’s ornaments. “I’m being told this land isn’t mine. I will die but will not leave this land and go anywhere,” a teary-eyed Ahmed told ThePrint.
A person in Rajbagh area of the city, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said, “The government says that it will not touch the poor, but they are the first to be attacked. People have been living on this land for so many years. Some people have even given money to the government for this. If there was a flaw in the [Roshni] Act, it should not have been implemented at all. Why should the common man suffer for the mistake of the government?”
A few of them are reluctant to talk over fear of being arrested or detained by the police. A resident of Mehjoor Nagar, who didn’t wish to be named, said, “If I talk to you now, police will pick me up in the evening.”
The villagers of Akingam in Anantnag, 65 kms from Srinagar, are also living under fear of losing their livelihood. There are 40 families in the village who have been living there for over decades and earn their livelihood by making pottery, but the threat of eviction from the state land looms, according to a letter written by People’s Conference president Sajad Lone requesting L-G not to evict the potters.
“Isn’t it the job of the government to free the citizens of their country from this fear? The government should see that these are common citizens, poor people. You demolish the land of influential people. But don’t do this to someone whose employment depends on it,” Lone told ThePrint.
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Rich & influential
The drive has affected politicians across party lines and other “influential people”.
As part of the drive, National Conference general secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar’s property, located in Humhama chowk of Srinagar, was retrieved by the revenue department last month. A green color board with “State Kahcharai Land” written on it stands outside the now-demolished property.
Forty kanals of land from Hotel Nedou’s located on MA Road in Srinagar was also retrieved. The boundary wall and shed of this hotel were demolished in the eviction drive. The hotel owner, Muzaffar Shah, is known to be a close relative of National Conference president Farooq Abdullah.
When ThePrint visited the hotel, sales and marketing manager Manzoor Ahmed refused to allow entry inside the property. “Sorry, I cannot allow you in and cannot tell you anything about the demolition,” he said.
According to media reports many Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, too, faced action in Jammu.
A report said that revenue officials seized the land of BJP leader Kavinder Gupta’s land (23.9 kanals or nearly 3 acres) in Jammu’s Ghaink village. Officials also seized land from BJP Leader Mahan Singh and Prem Sagar Aziz in Kathua region of Jammu.
However, Gupta denied this claim. “No land was in my name, if that is true authorities should show the papers. This matter was raised earlier also. I had also said that if I have any land, then give it to the orphanage. This is being said to malign my name. I do not own any such property, nor did I give it to anyone. I don’t know whose land they have freed from possession,” he told ThePrint.
“This drive is right for those people who occupied the land and set up their businesses while in power, but if we talk about the common people, there are many people in Jammu and Kashmir who became displaced and started living on the land by building houses, many such colonies have been regularised in other states. It can be done here also,” says Gupta.
In south Kashmir’s Pahalgam, the revenue department demolished a guest house, Green Acker in Laripora area. The J&K administration said the guest house was an illegal structure that was built by Bashir Ahmad Dar, former official of the municipal council, and Manzoor Ahmad, former secretary of the council.
Politicians question legality
Opposing the drive, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said that the administration is not following the legal process. “I am constantly getting calls from people that the properties of those who have legal documents of their land is also being demolished. There is no list, no legal process is being followed. People are scared. Is there no process? Will society run without law?,” the NC vice-president told ThePrint.
People’s Conference’s Lone said, “Every day such videos are coming in which houses of poor people are being demolished. The L-G has said that he will not touch the poor, either these videos are false or L-G.”
“Most of the properties that got demolished had nothing to do with the Roshini Act. If they want to free the state land, they should do it lawfully. Poor people are being tortured,” Sajad Lone told ThePrint.
Questioning L-G’s power, Lone said: “They [the J&K administration] should leave some bigger decisions to the elected government. They cannot take all decisions. At the end of the day, they are not elected by people.”
On February 8, Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti protested against the drive along with her party workers in Delhi, where she was detained. Earlier, the party has said in a statement that “the BJP’s lotus seems to have been replaced by a bulldozer”.
On Wednesday, NC member of Parliament from Anantnag, Hasnain Masoodi raised the issue during the ongoing Budget Session in Lok Sabha. “There is bulldozer-raj ( are running in Jammu and Kashmir, it doesn’t look like Kashmir is a part of India, it looks like it is some other country. There is a law in India. In Delhi, this government has regularized 1700 settlements but here (in J&K) houses built on 2000, 1200 ft land are being razed saying they are built on the state land which were given to them under government schemes… Jammu and Kashmir is not considered a part of this country,” he said.
(Edited by Anumeha Saxena)
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