| News Details |
| Migrant Act rendered inefficacious and toothless, Revenue officials twist law to advantage of illegal occupiers | | with or without 35A, KP’s continue to be major losers |
New Delhi, August 17, (Scoop News Bureau)-Accusing the authorities for deliberately rendering The Jammu and Kashmir Migrant Immovable Property (Preservation, Protection and Restraint on Distress Sales) Act 1997 inefficacious in the state, Kashmiri Pandits feel cheated as their immovable properties are being usurped, encroached upon and illegally mutated with the consent of revenue officials.
Scoop News is in possession of a document in which a Muslim has been shown as the owner of 1.6 Kanal Cherry Orchard and the real owner, a Pandit, as its tiller. Surprisingly, the present owner has built three houses for his two sons and a daughter on the illegally occupied land at a village in Ganderbal district.
When the incident was brought to the notice of the concerned deputy commissioner, he assured of a prompt action but even after lapse of over a decade nothing substantial has been communicated to the aggrieved party. Four deputy commissioners have changed baton since then.
Incidentally, an official circular No FC/LG/Mutation/94 dated 25- 10-1994 had warned against the attestation of illegal mutations and state, “it has been brought to the notice of the Financial Commissioner that after the migration of Kashmiri Pandits from the valley, the concerned Revenue Officers in connivance with the filed agency, have been mutating the lands under various laws of Kashmiri Pandit families after taking the evidence of the villagers when in fact the actual owner of the land is not present, because he is temporarily outside the valley. This is being done to deprive the legal and legitimate right of the owner……………… All concerned are directed not to do anything illegal and contrary to rules while attesting such mutations. All Dy Commissioners will have such case scrutinized and corrective action taken.”
However, in contravention of above circular the Divisional Commissioner-Kashmir, without making a thorough inquiry in the matter, issued permission of alienation with respect to its genuine owners of land in favour of an illegal occupier, giving go by to all the procedure required to be complied with under law and also in violation to the direction issued by the Chief Minister.
The owners had earlier issued public notices which were duly published in widely circulated newspapers in Kashmir in which it was notified that the land in the question was joint and undivided property and nobody should deal with the said land.
Ten marlas of land were chopped off from a temple property and added to the land for setting up of a community facility without taking anyone from the temple management into confidence. No compensation was paid for the land carved out of a religious place.
Due to political pressure from different quarters, the successive governments in the state continue to be indifferent to the passage of the Hindu Temples and Shrine Bill for past over a decade.
‘It is a toothless Act,” said Vinod Kumar Bhat, settled in New Delhi since his displacement in 1990. “With the connivance of the revenue officials the act is being twisted to the advantage of an occupier/encroacher,” he added.
Bhat said in a specific case, a letter sent by a (non migrant, Muslim) neighbor suggesting vandalizing and dismantling of the gutted structures. The concerned
Deputy Commissioner, who happens to be the custodian of the Migrant Property, did not discharge his duties and responsibility in this particular case as mandated by the Act.
The owners have been asking the concerned officials since then where their gutted structures had gone. Who took the debris, stones and bricks and un-burnt timber of these two huge houses? shockingly evokes no response for them till date. ... |
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