Government fails to act on State land grab in Baramulla

Six years after the state vigilance organisation (SVO) in its verification report confirmed that 60 kanals of state land (kahcharai) had been grabbed by the owners of a private housing society at Delina in North Kashmir’s Baramulla district, no action has been taken by the administration to retrieve the land.

The grabbed land was once used by the villagers of the area for grazing of their livestock.

The said housing cooperative society had also been found of evading stamp duty worth Rs 8,85,000 due on the purchased 366 kanals of land from private parties by not registering the said land in the name of the housing cooperative society.

As per the state vigilance verification report vide no. SVO/VERI-BK-24/07-8498-8501, dated 5-08-2009, a private cooperative housing society purchased around 366 kanals of land from private parties at Delina Baramulla for the purpose of developing a residential colony.

The proprietor of the said cooperative society, as per SVO, grabbed around 60 kanals of state land which was once being used as a grazing site for livestock.

Report suggests that out of the 60 kanals of land encroached by the cooperative society, 2 kanals were used for construction of road.

The proprietors of the society not only grabbed 60 kanals of state land which was in the form of a hillock but also excavated huge quantity of soil worth lakhs of Rupees which was later sold to a private firm IRKON.

According to sources, despite various communications from the SVO to the revenue department and the district administration to retrieve the state land, no action has been taken so far.

A fresh communication by the state revenue department Dtd 17-4-2015 shot to divisional commissioner Kashmir states: “Regarding encroachment of govt land at Delina Baramulla by cooperative housing society Baramulla and evasion of stamp duty. I am directed to enclose a copy of communication no. SVO/VERI-BK-24/07-8498-8501 dated 5-8-2009 received from state vigilance organisation regarding the subject cited above and request you to take appropriate action under rules in the matter.”

The locals here claim that the administration has not shown any interest in retrieving the state land.

“Since my childhood, the area was being used as pasture land and local population would come here along with their livestock. We communicated on several occasions to the district administration about the state land being grabbed by the said private cooperative society. But no action was taken. We assume that encroachment of the state land could not have been possible without the involvement of local officials,” said Ghulam Rasool, a resident of Delina Baramulla.

When contacted, Deputy Commissioner Baramulla, Peerzada Mushtaq Ahmad, said, “We have received a communication from the divisional commissioner’s office recently and we will look into the matter.”

Tehsildar Baramulla said that a thorough report on the issue will be submitted soon.

“We will soon constitute a committee and the matter will be looked into thoroughly,” said Tehsildar Baramulla, Nazir Ahmad Bhat.