By Fahd Khan

Ahmad (name changed) is having sleepless nights after the government of the erstwhile state, now a Union Territory ruled directly by the Centre, issued a circular on January 9 this year directing the deputy commissioners to retrieve all the state land encroached upon by individuals and communities to the extent of 100 per cent by 31st January 2023.

Ahmad’s dream of having his own house had come true when he invested all his life savings in buying a plot and then constructed a small house on it, but little did he know that his dream would be a short-lived. He now comes to know that the plot of land he bought a few years ago is a Kahcharie or State land. Now he is labelled as an “encroacher”, his house will be bulldozed and he will be rendered homeless.

Wani (name changed) is another person who has built a house on a small plot of land that was under his possession since decades and for which he had paid the government's fees in 2013 in accordance with the Roshni Act. The circular that the government issued on Jan 9 applied to both state land as well as the Roshni land will also evict him from his house.

The thought of going homeless and jobless is not haunting Ahmad and Wani alone but there are thousands of such people in the Union Territory who had purchased land without being aware that it is an encroached land. They now fear that their homes would soon be bulldozed and the fields they labour on and inherited from their forefathers might also be seized and declared as “state land”.

According to newspaper reports, the government claims that 22 lakh canals of land have been illegally encroached. The Jammu and Kashmir administration has said that the state land being retrieved during its anti-encroachment drive will be used to develop public infrastructure.

Following massive backlash from all sections of society soon after the order was circulated, the Lieutenant Governor of the Union Territory clarified that the eviction drive is only for the influential and powerful people who had earlier misused their position to usurp state land and not for the common masses and poor people, but the government has failed to issue any written order to this effect.

“A decade ago, I was looking for a plot of land to construct house. I came across a locality where all the government services were being provided. I bought a land and constructed a house on it. All my life savings went into constructing the house. But now suddenly when government issued a list of encroached land, I came to know that the whole locality I am living in is built on encroached land. If it was encroached land why was the government was providing services to those living there? People have been living here for decades then why did the government let them settle there. We shouldn't be asked to pay for the mistakes made by previous administrations,” said Ahmad.

Residents have been protesting against the drive for weeks now and claim that they are not being given a chance to establish their claim and their houses are being demolished, despite governments claim that the poor won’t be touched.

We tried to contact Revenue Commissioner Vijay Kumar Bhiduri for more details into the matter but he didn’t respond to our repeated calls.

The ongoing anti-encroachment exercise is arguably the largest ever undertaken in Jammu and Kashmir. Though the encroachment of the state land (of which the ownership was once granted to its tillers) is not new but has its long roots in history.

The bulldozing of the house of senior National Conference leader and former Minister Ali Mohammad Sagar at Humhama, which was constructed on “encroached land”, triggered fear and panic among residents. And as of now, according to newspaper reports, the government has retrieved over 3.89 lakh kanals of land in Kashmir valley and 23000 hectares or 454673.95 kanals in Jammu region mostly from former politicians and retired bureaucrats.

History of the state land

Agriculture has always formed the backbone of the Kashmir economy. Under the Dogra rule (1845-1947), people were given free access to work on pastures and state land as the government claimed the state to be wealthy and rich. Prior to 1947, a major chunk of land in Jammu and Kashmir was under the possession of landlords who controlled the land and were around 13000 in number. Those who managed the land either on behalf of the state or landlords, formed the middle class and those who tilled on the land formed the lower class.

The structure was feudal in character and in those days it was a common practice to grant landed estates as Jagirs and Muafis to loyal households. Out of the 13000 landlords, 3960 were big landlords and were known as Jagirdars and the area granted to them was their Jagir (fief). They had no proprietary rights in the land as ownership was vested in the Maharaja. However, they were the owners of the revenue of the areas granted to them. Apart from the Jagir, the state also assigned them the power to govern over the people of his jagir. Jagirdars were supposed to collect revenue directly from the people of different villages which fell under their jagirs including land revenue, grazing fee, forest fee, income from water mills and other means wherefrom villagers earned their livelihood. Usually, they took around 75 per cent of the produce and left 25 per cent to the tiller.

The remaining 8140 people formed other categories of landlords who were below the rank of Jagirdars and they were Pattadars, Chakdars, Muafdars and Mukararee. They held land on rent and didn’t have any propriety rights. There were around 250,000 peasants who worked on the lands of such landlords.

With the accession of Kashmir by India, the new government put an end to this practice of granting land to loyal households. The valley of Jammu and Kashmir was bought by the Dogras for 75 lakh Nanak shahi Rupees from British Empire through the treaty of Amritsar in 1846. This treaty was termed null and void by the new government which became the owner of such land. Such land was divided into many categories like Kahcharie (land allotted for grazing), Nuzool, Shamilat and Khalsa Sarkar. Partition also led to many people migrate to the state of Pakistan leaving behind property which was called “evacuee property” and this too became a property of the new government. Like the state land, the evacuee properties were also encroached upon by people in some districts including Rajouri, Samba and Kathua in Jammu.

Orders by the Earlier Governments

JK Evacuee Property Act 1949 allotted all the encroached evacuee land of 85 lakh hectares in the above-mentioned districts to their occupants. Similarly, the state land that was encroached upon by people was granted to them first with tenant rights and later with ownership rights in 1950s and 1960s respectively.

The agrarian reforms of 1950s and 1970s and “Grow More Food Policy” led many people to take possession of state land with some partial rights. The Grow More Policy was aimed to tackle famines.

The historic Big Land Estate Act 1950, popularly known as ‘Land to tiller act’, abolished the centuries-old practice of landlordism. It abolished the big landed estates by fixing the ceiling area of 182 kanals of land in ownership. Land surpassing this limit was automatically transferred to the tillers. Similarly, it provided ceiling for tiller by declaring that no tiller to whom land has been transferred shall at any time hold more than 160 kanals of land in ownership rights. Agrarian Reforms Act 1976 further reduced the ceiling on landholding to 100 kanals. These reforms were first envisioned and articulated in the Naya Kashmir Manifesto in 1944 by the National Conference under Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah.

Post-Abrogation of Special Status

When the Indian Parliament abrogated J-K’s special status on 5 Aug, 2019, it also passed the J-K Reorganisation Act which the Indian government could make changes to within a year of implementation. Before its window closing on 31 oct 2020, the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Adaptation of Central Laws) Third Order, 2020 was issued on October 26, practically opening up all of Jammu and Kashmir (J-K) to every Indian citizen, removing every restriction that prevented large landholdings, allowing the Indian armed forces to take over land wherever they desire, and giving sweeping powers to the government to take over any land and property for “industrial” use and to bring in big businesses to set up their shops. The order repealed 12 state laws and amended 14.

The Third Order repealed the Big Landed Estate Abolition Act and changed the Agrarian Reforms Act in a way as to render it inoperative. In addition, the Third Order also revoked the J-K Alienation of Land Act which laid down that any land given to tillers couldn’t be sold.

The Third Order also repealed the J-K Utilization of Land Act and the J-K Prohibition on Conversion of Land and Alienation of Orchards Act. These laws regulated the utilization of land and prevented changes in land use.

The J-K Land Revenue Act has been amended to make it far easier to convert agricultural land to non-agricultural use. The J-K Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1956, which regulated common village lands, was also repealed.

The J-K Consolidation of Holdings Act 1962, the J-K Prevention of Fragmentation of Agricultural Holdings Act 1960, and the J-K Tenancy (Stay of Ejectment Proceedings) Act 1966, which were all part of land reforms, were repealed as well. The Tenancy Act safeguarded tenants from ejectment from their tenements.

Roshni Land and Scam

In 2001, Jammu & Kashmir State Assembly passed the Jammu & Kashmir State Land (Vesting of Ownership to Occupants) Act, 2001 which is commonly known as Roshni Act. The act was aimed to raise money for power projects in exchange for giving ownership rights of the state land to unauthorised occupants upon payment of a sum to be decided by the Government of Jammu and Kashmir. The cut-off year was set as 1990 by the Government of Farooq Abdullah, which was extended to 2004 and again to 2007 by the PDP-Congress Government.

The Roshni scheme continued and people started paying for the lands they held. However, some anomalies were found by the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) in the year 2014, and 20 Public servants were accused by the State Vigilance Organization of abusing the law. Substantial deviations in the Act were made during the term of Ghulam Nabi Azad in 2007. Azad-led administration decided to provide exclusive rights to anybody occupying state land without paying a fee. It destroyed the goal of the plan and turned it into a scam. The statute was abolished in 2018 during the administration of Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik, who also ordered that the Central Bureau of Inquiry take charge of the investigation. In response to requests from IkkJutt Jammu, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court declared on October 9, 2020 the statute and all allocations made so far "null and invalid" and "unconstitutional". The Roshni act could only fetch 76 crores against the planned 25000 crores from the regularisation of 71000 acres of land in Jammu and 4000 acres of land in Kashmir.

Under the Roshni Act, a total of 3.48 lakh kanals (43,525 acres) of land was regularised in Jammu and Kashmir according to official figures. Ninety per cent of the transfer of ownership took place in Jammu region, while only 10% of beneficiaries of the scheme were from the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley.

The circular that the government issued on Jan 9 to retrieve all the encroached land by the end of 31st January 2023 applied to both state land as well as the Roshni land. Though the matter was taken to the apex court through a petition. It refused to stay the eviction but verbally directed the administration to not demolish the houses of the Roshni landholders till the next hearing scheduled after 31st January. On February 1, the supreme court turned down the plea.

Job Losses, Economy and GDP

The unemployment rate in Kashmir has skyrocketed in the past few years and stands at 14.6 per cent which is the sixth highest in the country. The eviction drive that is currently at its peak will somehow add more numbers to it, says economic experts.

The eviction drive at the Padshahi Bagh Srinagar, where illegal encroachments including shops were demolished without any notice being served to them as claimed by the victims. The demolition too rendered many people jobless.

“We knew the land was Kahcharaie but it has been under our possession since decades, the government claims that the eviction is only for the influential people who have illegally grabbed thousands of kanals. We only have few marlas of land and that is the only source of our livelihood,” said a person wishing anonymity.

“We have a large family and small kids to feed; we owned a shop dealing with scrap business and we were into it since long. We even paid the rent to the administration. This is sheer injustice. We are poor people. We can’t afford any other business at this juncture” said a person whose shop was demolished.

The demolition drive at MG Hector showroom at Jammu turned violent after local residents threw stones at the revenue officials, leaving three of them injured. According to the owner of the showroom, it was providing jobs to around 60 people all of whom have now been rendered jobless.

Economic researcher and expert Ejaz Ayoub says that the government’s move of retrieving land is going to dent the economy of the state. “Kashmir has mainly been an agrarian state with major portion of revenue coming from this sector and majority of population depending on it for living. Post-Covid-19 and abrogation of Article 370 have already led to the stagnation of businesses and caused unemployment. Introducing a policy of this nature will create confusion when a quarter of your workforce is already jobless and sitting at home. It will be harmful to the state and will have an irreversible impact and will lead people to poverty. We have a thousand crore apple industry, walnut industry and saffron industry which ultimately contributes to the economy and any uncertainty in the ownership rights of land will affect the state,” said Ejaz.

Political reaction

Former chief Minister and chairperson of Democratic Azad Party, Ghulam Nabi Azad, said that the ongoing anti-encroachment drive will bring back the hartal and stone pelting culture to Kashmir if the houses and shops of poor people are demolished.

Reacting to the anti-encroachment drive, former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said that a proper procedure should be followed and government should issue notices to the people and give them the chance to prove their claim, the bulldozer should be the last resort.

“Jammu and Kashmir has been turned into Afghanistan as there are bulldozers everywhere now. The eviction drive is the onslaught on our homes and livelihoods. The abrogation of Article 370 destroyed our identity and what was left was a roof over our heads and this drive is none but an attack to it,” said the former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti who was detained while protesting near the Indian Parliament.

Fearing a backlash, the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party leaders from Jammu and Kashmir have sought a “formal order” from the Union Territory administration. Quoting a news report, a BJP leader said, “I too have urged the LG administration to spare the poor during the ongoing land eviction drive. It is up to the government to finalise whether they would keep 10 marlas as the limit for having the state land for the poor who have constructed their homes or bring the number down to 5 or so. This is a matter of discussion and is being currently discussed, the leader said, adding that “we expect a formal order shortly in this regard.” (Photos by Mir Rameez Raja)