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| Bhalla for comprehensive law for checking land misuse | | | Early Times Report
jammu, Aug 18: If left to the Minister for Agriculture, G.H. Mir, he would support any move that could make it impossible for people to convert agricultural land for non-agricultural activities and practices. Mir wants the Bill that is with the Select Committee of the State Legislature to be tabled in the next session of the Assembly for adoption.
Against this the Minister for Revenue and Relief, Raman Bhalla, who heads the Select Committee, wants to see that the State Legislature adopted a law that could be implemented. He is against adoption of a law simply for the sake of keeping the record straight without ensuring that the same piece of law was enforced and people abided by it.
Mir is worried on account of conversion of long stretches of agricultural fields into either housing colonies or into industrial sheds. Mir believes that following squeezing of the area under cultivation of various crops the overall foodgrain production could drop. He says that in the context of these fears his ministry is laying emphasis on introducing multicropping and double cropping practices in Jammu and Kashmir.
Bhalla has studied and examined all the aspects of the issue pertaining to conversion of agricultural land into either housing colonies or using it for non-farming practices while chairing the Select Committee set up by the House for examining various features of the Bill that would be tabled in the State Legislature.
In fact the Bill had been introduced in the Assembly during the budget session but it was referred to the Select Committee when members expressed diverse opinion on the matter.
Raman Bhalla is of the opinion that placing blanket restrictions on land use was not a simple matter as is being given out. No doubt he believes that the Committee may debate the issue during two other meetings before finalising its recommendations he is opposed to taking any hasty step which may not allow the new law to check conversion of farm lands into housing colonies.
He says that once the Committee submitted its recommendations to the House Speaker it would come up for discussion and vote in the State Legislature. "But we plan to include the views of every member of the committee so that the House supports all the recommendations," Bhall said.
What seems to have worried the members of the Select Committee is the lack of a set policy of the Government as far as creation of new housing colonies was concerned. Growth in population and splitting of families have created a situation which calls for keeping a portion of land in the State available for building housing colonies.
The State of Jammu and Kashmir has started witnessing multidimensional development in the sectors of horticulture, industry, road connectivity and extension of railways. This phenomenon has led to losing vast chunks of land for activities other than agriculture.
Bhalla does not want to curb individual right to build a new house or set up an industrial unit. He plans to recommend the Government to frame a master plan on housing colonies because in the absence of any such plan there has been a haphazard growth in residential colonies on the outskirts of the cities of Jammu and Srinagar.
He wants check on misuse of agricultural land but at the same time he is keen to see the Government enact a new law that would save forest areas and wetlands from encroachment. He does not want the new law to cover only agricultural land. |
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