Willing to give up ‘encroached land’: Mushtaq Chaya
ABRAR MATTOO
SRINAGAR, Dec 22: Amid the reports of the auction of the leased forest land of about 315 Kanals, 59 hotel-like structures at Jammu and Kashmir’s prime tourist destination, Gulmarag, are about to face the axe following the UT administration’s decision to implement the new land laws.
This is in exclusion to the 170 Kanals of forest land that has been allegedly encroached by the hoteliers at picturesque tourist destinations, concerning which the government has not revealed any plans as of now.
The hoteliers have been requesting the Lt. Governor’s administration in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir to revisit its plans concerning the leases over the forest land at Gulmarag, all of which have expired between 2018 and 2020.
Pertinently, the hoteliers at Gulmarag say that they are willing to surrender the illegally encroached forest land.
While speaking with Kashmir Despatch, Mushtaq Ahmad Chaya, Chairman Jammu and Kashmir Hoteliers Club said that the hoteliers are willing to give up the encroached land.
“Encroached land should be taken back by the government. We are ready to give that up. We are neither supporting nor claiming the encroached land,” Chaya added.
According to various documents obtained by Kashmir Despatch, 170-Kanals of precious forest land stand encroached on by Gulmarag hoteliers. This is in addition to the expired lease on 315-Kanals of forest land, held unauthorizedly by the hoteliers of the famous tourist destination.
Chaya further added that from time to time, “the process is that the lease should be renewed, and extended because it is not only a matter of land, but there are also constructions in place, and the hotel owners have invested large sums of money and taking the land back would be an injustice to them.”
Chaya also said that it is a matter of lakhs of youth who are employed in various establishments at Gulmarag, and “while the government should make efforts to improve employment, how can the administration afford to close or disturb a whole destination where the livelihood of lakhs of youth is involved, and which is thriving after a long period of struggle.”
Although the hotels have existed since the time of the Maharajas of Jammu and Kashmir, and the hotel leases were renewed for forty years in the 1980s, the whole estate of Gulmarag was transferred to Gulmarag Development Authority in 2005. Pertinently, the incompetent Authority has failed in its job to take cognizance of the gradual encroachment by hoteliers in Gulmarag.
In a deliberate effort to mislead the court and public, the then-commissioner secretary to the Government Tourism and Culture department filed an affidavit in court on 10th June 2015. In para 5 of this affidavit, the said official stated “all the encroachments have been removed and possession was therefore taken”.
The details of the earlier occupiers and 179-Kanals of retrieved land were also furnished with this affidavit. Yet ironically, nearly five years later, 170-Kanals of land remains encroached by the hoteliers in Gulmarag, as was ascertained by the then court commissioner Masrat Shaheen in the year 2020.
The hoteliers in Gulmarag have time and again attempted to take complete control of their respective lands in Gulmarag, which included both illegally occupied and leased. In the year 2006-07, the estate land of Gulmarag occupied by the hoteliers was planned to be converted into ownership properties under Roshni-Act, but the process was stopped for obvious reasons.
“The Roshni-Act would have given the hotelier’s ownership rights to state land, and this might have made the encroachments permanent and untouchable; even promoted further land grab by the hoteliers in future,” commented a local revenue official, privy to Gulmarag affairs.
In 2007-18, a prominent businessman from Kashmir applied for the vesting of ownership rights under the Roshni Act for almost 20-Kanals of forest land. His three posh hotels that were connected with his request of vesting ownership rights, were sitting on 6-Kanals of encroached land, and on 17-Kanals of forest land, over which the lease had expired nearly two decades ago at that time, on November 20, 1990.
Additionally, in the current date, this means that the businessman has not paid any rent for the state land that he had been occupying illegally for the past thirty years and may not even pay for many years to come until the deadlock between the Gulmarag hoteliers and Government is not resolved.
“While the vesting of ownership rights over state land under the Roshni-Act would have greatly benefited the hoteliers, it would have cost the exchequer Crores of rupees in rent that the hoteliers paid to the government until 2018,” an official told Kashmir Despatch on the condition of anonymity.
It remains to be seen what actions would follow from the Lt. Governor’s administration concerning the illegally occupied forest land at Gulmarag.
While speaking with the media on Thursday, Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Manoj Sinha said that no poor person would be affected by the modifications in the land laws and that it is the rich only who are crying about it.
