Demand for a high-level probe gained momentum as the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Jammu and Kashmir unearthed the biggest scam into grabbing a huge chunk of evacuee land meant for the displaced families of refugees from Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK).
President of the Jammu and Kashmir Sarnarthi Action Committee (JKSAC) Gurdev Singh told The International Business Times it is high time to constitute a high-level committee of revenue experts to investigate the alleged misappropriation of lakhs of kanals of evacuee land.
Expressing his serious concern over what he described as the continued failure of successive governments in Jammu and Kashmir to examine the alleged illegal occupation and misappropriation of evacuee land that was originally intended for the rehabilitation of displaced families from POJK.
He said the committee has repeatedly urged successive governments to appoint a panel of revenue experts to ascertain the actual status of the evacuee land and identify the extent of alleged encroachments and irregular allotments.
Evacuee land proposed to be allotted to displaced families
The evacuee land, left by those who migrated to Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir after the partition, was initially proposed to be allotted to the 1947 displaced families for their sustenance under Government Order No. 1476-C, dated December 16, 1950.
However, before the order could be implemented, it was superseded by Government Order No. 913-C dated August 7, 1951, which changed the order of priority by giving first preference to tillers, second to local residents, and third to the 1947 displaced persons from PoJK.
The process of land allotment to displaced families commenced only in 1953, following the constitution of a Joint Rehabilitation Board headed by General Tara Singh Bal, with representatives of the then state government.
By that time a substantial portion of the evacuee land had already been occupied by local residents and influential persons with the alleged connivance of sections of the Revenue Department.
A total of 1,526,817 kanals and 14 marlas of evacuee land had been left behind by those who migrated during the partition. Of this, around 611,122 kanals were allotted to displaced persons in Jammu province, while approximately
46,000 kanals, as mentioned in the Wadhwa Commission Report, were allotted to West Pakistan refugees settled in Jammu province.
Reports said the government has no clear record regarding the quantum of land allotted to displaced families of the 1965 and 1971 conflicts or to landless residents.
Despite repeated representations by displaced families, the Custodian Department and other authorities have allegedly expressed their inability to furnish complete information.
According to the Jammu and Kashmir Administration of Evacuee Property Act (Samvat 2006), Section 6 of the Act makes it mandatory for the Custodian to periodically notify, through the Government Gazette or other prescribed means, details of all evacuee properties, including land and structures vested in the department.
“The Custodian Department has never issued such comprehensive notifications, thereby violating the statutory provisions of the Act and depriving stakeholders of transparency regarding the actual extent and status of evacuee property,” Singh said.
According to government records, 22,719 displaced families were allotted land under the prescribed rehabilitation scale. However, nearly 8,000 families received land substantially below the prescribed entitlement and have since been demanding allotment of the deficient area.
Singh recalled that in 1975, a high-powered committee headed by the then chief secretary reportedly identified nearly 227,000 kanals of evacuee land under the alleged illegal possession of local residents and influential persons but claimed that no effective action was taken to retrieve the land.
He said that over 1.66 lakh kanals of evacuee land were under illegal occupation while stating that only 4,501 kanals had been retrieved over the previous five years.
He asserted that the Rehabilitation Department had informed a parliamentary committee in 1978 that nearly 27 lakh kanals of evacuee land had been left behind by those who migrated to PoJK and that only about 15% had been allotted to displaced persons, while the remaining land had allegedly been encroached upon.
ACB registered FIR
On July 8, ACB unearthed another alleged Custodian land scam in Jammu and registered two FIRs against revenue officials, beneficiaries and alleged land grabbers for illegally securing ownership rights and fraudulently alienating government land in the Bhalwal and Amb areas.
Thousands of kanals of Custodian land at Asarwan, Mishriwala, Bhalwal and R.S. Pura in Jammu were allegedly grabbed by land grabbers in connivance with revenue officials. The revenue records were allegedly tampered with, and the land was subsequently sold to various persons.
Based on the inputs, the ACB initiated a verification, which earlier found that over 1,000 kanals of Custodian land had been shown as allotted to displaced persons on the basis of fake orders.
The beneficiaries were otherwise not entitled to the additional land, which was allegedly secured through fraudulent means by land grabbers, Form Alaf holders and revenue officials. Accordingly, 27 FIRs were registered, and the investigation is still in progress.