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| Land mafia: unholy Nexus of Corporate/ Politicians, officials, property dealers | | | Bashir Assad
Srinagar, Sept 23: Land mafia is a nexus comprising politicians, criminals, property dealers and corrupt government officials and it does not just comprise some individuals. Without the support of politicians, bureaucrats, judicial officers is it possible for the property dealers to get sale deeds registered in the civil courts and that too for the properties under temples, graveyards, shrines and gurduwaras ? Certainly not. land belonging to Mahavir Ji temple in Srinagar and owned by the Sanathan Dharam Pratap Sabha - sold off, Tul halan forest land in Shopaian-sold off, forest land in Gulmerg -regularized under Roshni Act, forest land in Pahalgam-sold off.
Gurduwara land in Handwara-sold off, properties belonging to minority religious trusts in Srinagar-sold off, huge commercial complexes on disputed land coming up under the nose of authorities, illegal commercial complexes particularly automobile workshops established without permission, the list is exhausting and papers available with various media organizations have brought to the fore the unholy nexus of politicians, criminals, property dealers and government officials. Oh no, role of so called trustees of minority religious trusts cannot be ignored. The present assets of temples in the valley said to be worth Rs 10,000 crore are mostly under the control of trusts and some non-state priests. Such trust keepers have continuously been reported to have sold off temple lands below market rates.
Since last two or three years acres of prime land belonging to migrants has been sold through flouting the Migrant Immovable Properties Act that puts a lid on distress sale. Very recently President, Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti Sanjay Tickoo had said that they have came across 150 documents which "clearly show that without the help of politicians, revenue officials, a retired High Court judge and some bureaucrats in revenue department it is difficult for the land mafia to grab the property and sell it".
In a particular case, land belonging to a minority trust was leased out by the trustee to one party who in turn leased it out to another and so on and interestingly in a single year the land in question was clandestinely leased out to five persons in a chain.
Not only these properties of the erstwhile Dogra dynasty are gradually slipping into the hands of an organized land mafia that includes temple trusts, revenue and judicial officials and in some cases the politicians.
Then there is the sale and conversion of Agriculture land for commercial purposes and for launching illegal housing societies.
The acquisition of land in a consolidated chunk is needed for launching a housing society. But when a company begins purchasing land, it unwittingly announces its intentions to the existing residents of that area.
As a result, many owners simply refuse to sell at the market price while others may not be interested in parting with their land - regardless of price. This is where the land mafia or more accurately the criminal elements come in - to make an offer, the owner cannot refuse. And for this they charge the housing societies.
Then you have a very unique type of land mafia in Sringar. Recently reports about putting on sale the land which actually do not belong to them in anyway by land mafia in and around Dal Lake hit the headlines. Hundreds of the kanals of land in the Dal Lake was sold by the 'land mafia' to the government without the consent of the owners, locals allege. In Rainawari area of Srinagar, marshy land worth crores of rupees, belonging to the Dal dwellers has been illegally sold by at least 12 brokers in collaboration with the officials, they say.
The residents of the area estimate the length of the area as over 100 kanals and claim the land is worth 4-6 crores.
In January, this year, Mohammad Sultan, a resident of Shiekh Mohalla, Rainawari, went to a local broker to sell his piece of land . but, to his utter shock, the broker revealed that the land Sultan identified was sold way back in 2007 to and by unknown person to the government.
The disclosure came as a shocker for the entire population of Rainawari. The land belonging to their forefathers had been sold illegally by the brokers. The residents say 'their land has been snatched by the government through deceit'. Is it possible without the support rather involvement of people at the helm of affairs? Not at all.
The story does not end here. Alas! In some cases people from other side of the political divide are reportedly involved in the land grabbing business.
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