Why Jammu and Kashmir Govt should tread cautiously on the troubled land  – The Dispatch

In a rugged and distant mountainous a part of Jammu area, the household of Ahmed Din (title modified on request) is confronted with a lifetime dilemma as they face a double edged sword –authority of the State on one facet and social stigma on the opposite. There may be additionally a collective emotional trauma as household’s legitimacy of possession is challenged after over a century of peaceable possession of the land.

The household faces imminent eviction from a tract of 30 kanals of tough land, of which round eight kanals is a rain fed agricultural patch supporting only one crop (maize) a 12 months, one other 10-15 kanal patch is for cattle grazing. The remaining 5 kanals of land is of no sensible use, however that provides to household’s pleasure within the village.

What’s the household’s relationship with this land, what’s the authorized standing and why is the state now evicting them –these are all advanced points intrinsically linked to governance and politics that’s not about folks and their rights.

They’ve a newly constructed home on round 12 marlas of the land, however the ancestral mud home, with a linked cattle room, the place Din was born continues to be there as an affidavit to what the household claims as its inalienable and inseparable proper to this piece of land.

Din was born in 1952 in the identical home. His father died in 1974, aged 66. The household inherits a dwelling reminiscence of Din’s father additionally having been born in the identical home in 1908. A few of his garments and books are a part of the household heirloom. So, Din’s household has lived on and owned this piece of land for 115 years, however the ‘State’ doesn’t agree.

This isn’t a proprietorship land as defined by the prevailing legal guidelines, Din’s household agrees to the ‘State’ perspective however their unclear authorized standing on the land which they’ve inhabited for over a century is a consequence of flawed governance, and theft of land, as being made out.

They had been the authorized homeowners of the land beneath varied related legal guidelines and in addition had their entries within the annual income data marked. Following laws on vesting of possession rights, the so known as Roshni Act, they’d their land legally regularized. Nevertheless, following court docket instructions in PILs referring to the ‘Roshni’ Act and unlawful encroachment of state land, these entries had been struck down by income officers, because it occurred throughout many districts put up 2018.

The Roshni Act, duly legislated, was scrapped by Governor Satya Pal Malik’s administration in 2018 and subsequently the Excessive Court docket additionally declared it unlawful and voids ‘ab anitio’.

Whereas the Court docket heard the Roshni PILs, exterior the courts there was a large political narrative which painted all such occupants as ‘mafia’. Politicians, primarily from the BJP in a bid to focus on the NC and PDP regimes, and in addition dignitaries holding excessive constitutional positions known as such possessors of land as mafia. In Jammu a non secular color was added to the paint to make issues additional tough on the social stage.

The state governments, and subsequently the Union Territory administration, did nothing on the coverage entrance to check the character of occupation of land and subsequent regularization course of. That is the place Din’s household now dangers not solely possession of land but additionally the hard-earned status.

In November and December 2020, the Divisional Commissioners of Jammu and Srinagar started to publish choose listing of ‘excessive profile’ ‘land grabbers’ on their web sites. Many small landowners even remotely linked to NC, PDP and Congress politicians additionally figured in these choose lists. The following spicy reportage within the media attracted protestors from BJP’s allies to their residences calling them mafia and land-jehadists. Publications of those lists, coinciding with DDC elections, had been stopped solely on intervention of the Excessive Court docket.

“We work within the numerous segments of society”, stated a member of Din’s household whereas explaining how they face the social stigma and threat of being labeled as mafia and unlawful occupiers. The household has a dwelling reminiscence of proudly owning this land for 115 years however this might return to centuries as they don’t bear in mind every other historical past of migration.

Din’s household just isn’t alone. They’re amongst a whole lot and 1000’s of households throughout Jammu and Kashmir dealing with eviction beneath a current order of the Jammu and Kashmir authorities which has set a good deadline of January 31 to retrieve all ‘illegally occupied’ patches of state land.

Indiscriminate
Income Secretary Vijay Bidhuri told The Dispatch in an interview earlier this week that solely excessive industrial worth land is being focused whereas small agricultural holdings and residential homes aren’t being touched. This holds good for a confidence constructing assertion however doesn’t make robust foundations for a authorized course of. Who’s going to find out this criterion at district, tehsil and patwar ranges? Bidhuri’s personal current circular sets out a daily 4PM deadline for income officers on the divisional and district stage to replace the federal government on day’s evictions particulars. In districts, the Deputy Commissioners have set out their very own targets for the Tehsildars. In villages, nobody is following Bidhuri’s commitment of welfare state. In absence of the political govt and legislature, each subordinate officer needs to stroll an additional mile to maintain the superiors happy, and therefore extra evictions may very well be irrational. Disturbing movies, such as this from Bani tehsil, are rising from throughout the Jammu area the place small landholdings are moved in opposition to with Police help.

Land and governance

The Authorities of India’s monumental constitutional adjustments of August 5, 2019 haven’t confronted the form of response from any a part of Jammu and Kashmir, together with the Valley, as was being warned in opposition to by the ‘consultants’ and regional leaders within the run up and within the aftermath. One of many causes for accepting these adjustments with warning, even by the antagonists, was the assumption within the authorities’s dedication to good governance and equality earlier than legislation. The principle premise of this good governance sentiment stems from authorities’s sustained marketing campaign in opposition to the alleged unhealthy governance and discrimination within the pre-2019 Jammu and Kashmir. On this backdrop, the hope for good governance and justice turns into a pure expectation. Landholding, its regularization is a matter purely associated to governance.

Within the scene increase shortly earlier than 2019, when the Court docket heard the Roshni PILs, the federal government not solely supported the petitioners’ perspective but additionally aided the political narrative. The placing down of Roshni didn’t elicit any unruly public response as folks anticipated the federal government to provide you with a coverage safeguarding authentic pursuits of the bonafide residents of Jammu and Kashmir.

It was, subsequently, reassuring when the UT administration knowledgeable the Supreme Court docket and in addition the related Division Bench of Jammu and Kashmir Excessive Court docket that they don’t need go on a rampant marketing campaign of retrieving lands and should as a substitute be allowed to type a coverage on this connection. Whereas the courts have but to present out their ultimate observations, however the authorities’s response in anticipation of the coverage spelled out its intentions –correcting the previous follies of misgovernance to guard real pursuits.
The federal government’s sudden transfer of huge scale evictions opposite to the assertion of intentions within the courts is past comprehension. There may be common assist to the federal government to evict unlawful encroachers however households like Din’s are in 1000’s if not in lakhs who are actually being made to undergo simply because the federal government both didn’t make insurance policies or didn’t implement them. Or each new regime needed to undertaking the predecessor a villain. The place do folks determine on this?

Land and politics

Land has all the time been intrinsic to the politics in Jammu and Kashmir, as important as it’s to life. There was an extended historical past, however the newest one could also be of curiosity to the current policymakers: Possession of land was one of many main elements creating an enabling surroundings for folks of the Muslim majority state to just accept the accession to the Union of India, in opposition to Pakistan as demanded by faith and the communal surroundings of that point. Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah ran an intensive marketing campaign for years to persuade folks that it was in India the place he may safe their proper to land. In a variety of speeches, together with within the Constituent Meeting, Sheikh warns folks in opposition to the feudal landlords of Pakistan. It was on this backdrop that the appropriate to tillers –by means of the Large Estates Abolition Act –secured folks’s belief of their future with India.

Since 2018, land is central to all political debates in and round Jammu and Kashmir. Whether or not it’s Roshni, placing down of Article 35-A, the brand new domicile legal guidelines, the brand new industrial funding coverage or the land grant legal guidelines, most of it revolves round opening the land of Jammu and Kashmir to everybody within the nation. Curiously, besides few political statements, the opening of Jammu and Kashmir lands has not been resisted or objected to by the native plenty. Persons are usually satisfied that with the going of Article 370, there isn’t any hurt in making the legal guidelines relevant to Jammu and Kashmir that are in vogue in remainder of the nation. Nevertheless, in relation to dropping their very own land, held over the centuries, the rising sentiment is one thing the federal government should observe, examine and use for a well timed coverage intervention.

This long statement of Sunil Dutt, chief of a company known as Dogra Lok Kalyan Discussion board is simply symbolic of the rising sentiment. The query being raised right here is about the appropriate of the ‘natural’ folks of Jammu and Kashmir on the land of Jammu and Kashmir. The Dogra Lok Kalyan Discussion board will not be a consultant voice of the folks of Jammu and Kashmir however this little over 4 minute long video, already watched by 88,000 folks, voices the issues and sentiments of individuals, notably of the Jammu area who’ve all the time supported the current authorities insurance policies in absolute ‘nationwide curiosity’.

As authorities takes extraordinary financial, political and safety measures to normalise the political and social surroundings put up 2019, a land and rehabilitation coverage could be an extended overdue intervention to construct confidence with the folks. There are a variety of legal legal guidelines to cope with the land grabbers and the mafia, however the authentic landholders want a corrective coverage. The present Tehsildar stage ransack with 4PM each day deadline could go away many feelings irreparably bruised. That is for the Residence Ministry and Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha to learn the state of affairs and suggest coverage intervention. The political leaders could have their very own difficulties and vast ranging conflicts of curiosity guiding them to remain silent on the difficulty.