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| Encroachments removed from proposed Channi | | Green-Belt park, cops deployed to deal with mafia | | BHARAT BHUSHAN
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Jan 11: After over a decade-long legal battle and intense drama with lot many twists-n-turns, the housing board Monday razed to ground all the encroachments from the worth Rs 150 cr strip of land at Channi Himmat earmarked for a green-belt park three decades back.
The board action came nearly a month after ET carried a comprehensive news report on how the land mafia had encroached upon the strip and how an AC(R)'s "secret" report in this connection tended to deprive the board of the land's ownership rights, contrary to a high court division bench verdict.
The news item was carried in the December 14 issue of Early Times under the caption: "Channi Green-Belt encroachment: Contrary to HC verdict, AC(R)'s findings lead to "denial" of ownership rights to Housing Board".
A senior board officer said after the ET report, deputy commissioner, Jammu, tasked additional deputy commissioner (ADC) Sheetal Nanda to find out what the reality was.
Nanda visited the spot along with revenue officials on December 28 and prepared a detailed report of her findings based on the revenue records, locals' statements and board record. Though Nanda could not be contacted for comments, sources said it was on the basis of her report that the board removed encroachments on Monday and Tuesday, and levelled the ground. The board men and machinery were accompanied by a posse of policemen, including women cops, led by SP Rameshwar Singh.
The heavy police presence did not give the encroachers any chance to resist. Their opponents had the whip hand. So that they did not perpetuate trouble, cops remained deployed near the strip throughout the day today.
Housing board managing director Dalip Thusoo said the strip would soon be developed as a green-belt park. About Rs 76 lakh would be spent on its development in the beginning, he informed, saying, "We will try to get more funds for the purpose."
The Channi Himmat Residents' Joint Action Committee member AS Wazir said the work on the green-belt park was delayed due to the land mafia.
Another member Jagtar Singh alleged that some revenue officials were hand-in-glove with the land grabbers. Wazir, a retired chief engineer and former housing board managing director, said the government should find out the black sheep in the revenue department and punish them under law.
The AC(R)'s findings, compiled in a letter, were based on a demarcation report of the field staff concerned, the official record and a decision of financial commissioner (revenue) in this regard. According to the letter, a major portion of the land strip along
Narwal bypass road on Channi Himmat side, which is earmarked for the green-belt, belongs to private persons and not to the housing board, which raised the housing colony nearly three decades back. While the division bench judgement that the land stands acquired by the housing board against the payment of final awards to owners on
November 30, 1981, came on April 25, 2006, the AC(R)'s findings had concluded on August 20, 2010. In his letter No DCJ/5Q/2010-11/1639-40, the AC(R) had given a reference of an order of financial commissioner (revenue), which had set aside the mutation No 774 of July 7, 1976.
As per the financial commissioner's decision vide file No 333/FC/AP dated November 14, 2007, the ownership rights of the land in question were conferred, under section 5 of the Big Landed Estates Abolition Act 2007, on Nazir Ahmad and others.
In the colony's site plan, however, the strip of adequate width was left to be later developed as green-belt to serve as a thick plantation buffer against the heavy noise and air pollution constantly generated by round-the-clock vehicular traffic on the adjoining bypass road.
The entire land at Channi Himmat was acquired by the board in 1981. Nine years later, ie in 1990, some people had moved the high court with the claim that the strip actually belonged to them. Noor Ahmad, Noor Bibi, Mohammad Yaqoob, Abdul Majid, Mohammad Shafi, Bashir Ahmad, Mohammad Rashid, Sakina Bibi, Shima Bibi, Gulzar
Begum, Sultan Mohammad, Bagh Ali and Nazir Ahmad had prayed to the court to stop the board from "taking forcible and illegal possession of the strip and demolishing shops and buildings constructed on it". An interim order for maintenance of status quo was passed by the court in this regard on August 13, 1990. Alleging that the land was in their possession for the past 60 years, they claimed that they were entitled to ownership rights under government order No 432-C of 1966, though no mutation had been attested in their favour. The board opposed the petitioners' claim, saying it had acquired the land on November 30, 1981. It also said that no structure stood on the land before the court's status quo order and asserted that the petitioners had raised construction on the land under the garb of the court order.
The petition was dismissed by the court on February 10, 2000, with the observation that "this writ is utterly misconceived". "This is a vexatious litigation because the petitioners, knowing that the land has been acquired, made false averments against the board claiming compensation and title which does not vest in them.
Even revenue record produced by them shows that it is a State Land which is recorded as Banjar Qadeem," the court said. So the question of proprietary rights would not arise, but assuming that they had any right under any law, it could have been agitated on a reference being made by the collector provided he was approached. Since it was not done, the petition "is utterly misconceived and liable to be dismissed". In case any of the rights of the petitioners was infringed, the only remedy available to them was under section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act. The court said since they had not applied to the collector under it, even this right had been lost because they had, by filing objections, disclosed the date of the award and the limitation would start running against them from October 1999.
After the dismissal of their petition, Sultan, Bagh Ali, Yaqub, Abdul Majid, Mohammad Shafi, Rashid Ahmad, Bashir Ahmad, Noor Bibi and Gulzar Bibi had filed another petition, this time before the division bench of the then chief justice BA Khan and justice JP Singh, seeking regularisation of their "possession" of land under government order No LB-6/C of 1958 and proprietary rights under government order No S-432 of 1966.
This writ petition was taken up by the bench for preliminary hearing during which the judges said they did not find any material on records to disturb the factual finding recorded by the single judge that the appellants were out of possession of land and had resorted to vexatious litigation.
"We are conscious of the fact that the appellants had come to the court with unclear hands and protracted the litigation to perpetuate the operation of an interim order obtained by them on August 13, 1990," they added. With these observations, the judges had dismissed their this petition too on April 25, 2006. "We dismiss the appeals with costs/litigation expenses to the housing board, quantified at Rs 10,000 each appeal," they ordered. The AC(R)'s investigation was carried out nearly four years after the dismissal of the writ petition by the double bench. An amount of Rs 3,71,41,895 was awarded to the land owners as compensation. The removal of encroachments was widely hailed by the Channi Himmat residents. |
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