SRINAGAR: Government has set a deadline of three months for the removal of encroachments from the State land across the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir with the direction to all the concerned agencies to work in a coordinated manner. Moreover, Government has made it clear that action would be taken against the Revenue Department officials for the missing Massavis.
Quoting official sources news agency Daily Excelsior reported that in a high-level meeting held recently, Chief Secretary Dr Arun Kumar Mehta had detailed deliberations regarding the encroachments on the State land in the length and breadth of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, which continues to remain a matter of serious concern for the Government.
In the meeting, the top brass of the Revenue Department shared with the Chief Secretary the district-wise details of the State land evicted from the encroachers since the issuance of directions in the past, sources said, adding even some issues which create hurdles in the retrieval of land from the grabbers came up for discussion and after detailed deliberations the Chief Secretary directed the Revenue Department to leave no stone unturned to retrieve the entire encroached land.
Laying thrust on proper coordination between all the concerned agencies like Revenue Department, civil and police administration during the drive, Dr Mehta directed that all the concerned departments should ensure that such encroachments are removed within a period of three months.
It is pertinent to mention here that last month while reviewing the working of the Revenue Department, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha issued directions for taking appropriate action as per the law for removal of encroachments from the State land and planning for its use for the developmental activities.
“Close liaison should be maintained by the Revenue Department with civil administration and police authorities to detect any attempt to encroach upon the State land and safeguard it from unauthorized construction. Officials on the ground must ensure that the poor should not be harassed,” the Lieutenant Governor had stated in the meeting.
“The Government has already directed the Revenue officials to undertake extensive anti-encroachment drives on regular basis with focus on the high-value commercial areas in the first instance”, sources informed, adding “the Revenue Department is already under the process of submission of time series data on periodical encroachments showing decadal growth of encroachments over 1990- 2000-2010-2020”.
According to the sources, the Chief Secretary has directed the Revenue Department to take immediate action against reported cases of illegal trespassing and prevent further encroachments. Further, the department has been told to ensure fencing of retrieved land to prevent further encroachments.
“No doubt the administration in all the 20 districts of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is carrying out anti-encroachment drives to retrieve the State land but the same is not up to the desired level especially in the light of the repeated directions issued by the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh while dealing with the Public Interest Litigations (PILs) on the subject,” newspaper Daily Excelsior quoted sources as having said, adding “now the drives have to be intensified in view of the timeline fixed by the Chief Secretary”.
Meanwhile, the Chief Secretary discussed the issue of missing revenue records and while taking serious note of the same directed that handing over of Massavi is the responsibility of the transferred official and in the event, the official has failed to point out the missing Massavis at the time of handing over charge, consequential action should be taken against such officials by the Revenue Department, the report quoted sources as having said.
Moreover, Dr Mehta, as per the sources, directed that keeping in view the fact that Information Technology infrastructure facilities have been made available to all Tehsildars/Naib Tehsildars the backend Revenue processes presently being carried out manually should be shifted completely to online mode at the earliest.
