Out of 6926 identified spots, 6423 are encroached
Abrar Mattoo
SRINAGAR : The total area of Srinagar city is 294 Sq. Kms. which translates to 5,81,726 Kanals or 72715 acres of land. Out of this, nearly 1,65,182 Kanals, or 20,647 acres of land in Srinagar belongs to the government, and this accounts for nearly 28.3 per cent of the total area of the city.
The district administration has identified 6,925 patches of state land in the city, out of which 6,423 (nearly 92%) patches of land stands encroached. According to various documents accessed by Kashmir Despatch which contain the details on encroachments over government land In Srinagar city, there are 83 mosques, 6 shrines, and 27 graveyards that are listed in encroachment.
Further, with nearly 27 Kanals of encroachment, former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Dr. Farooq Abdullah is among the top names who have encroached the government land in the city.
The district administration recently retrieved 333 Kanals of state land from encroachers across all seven Tehsils of Srinagar.
While speaking with Kashmir Despatch on account of anonymity, a senior revenue official in Srinagar said that the government has no plans to retrieve the leased land.
“Currently, we are concerned with encroachments only, and the land which has been leased to various establishments and individuals is not our priority,” the official added.
There are big chunks of Nazool land that have been leased to various influential people and establishments in the past, and over which the lease period has also expired. One of the biggest examples is, Tyndale Biscoe & Mallinson Girls educational institute which leased eighty-seven Kanals of Nazool (Government) land at Srinagar’s Sheikhbag area of Lal-chowk for an annual rent of Rs. 1250. The other prominent examples are Grand Mumtaz Srinagar and Samci Rivera Rajbagh. However, the government has not stated its intention yet concerning the thousands of Kanals of Nazool land in Srinagar over which the lease has expired.
According to new Land Grant rules, the expired lease over the Nazool land would not be renewed and the land shall be auctioned at the existing market rates. Recently, while defending the actions of the government, the Lt. Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Shri Manoj Sinha said that “his administration aims to end the hegemony of the rich.”
It remains to be seen what will follow concerning the encroachment of state land in Srinagar. While various politicians have implored the government to bear in mind the human cost of its actions, the government has promised that the poor have nothing to fear from its anti-encroachment drive.
