Irshad Hussain/ Jaskamal Bains
On Monday, scores of residents from south Kashmir’s Kakapora Oukhoo, the Pencil village of Kashmir staged a protest, in Srinagar’s Press Enclave against the transfer of their land for the construction of CRPF camp in their village. Srinagar’s Press Enclave reverberated with the slogans “We Want Justice” and “End Oppression.”
Almost a year ago, the village made Headlines in several leading media organizations after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a mention of the ‘Pencil Village’ in his radio talk show ‘Mann Ki Baat.’ The village is known to produce 60% of India’s pencils. However, the village has been protesting against the transfer of their agricultural land for the construction of CRPF Camp, for over a month now.
Protesting for over a month now
The residents of Oukhoo have been protesting against the administration’s order for a month now. As reported earlier, they had staged a protest against the decision of transferring 80 kanal of land to the CRPF on November 01, itself. And later, they had also staged a protest on November 13, where top leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had assured the protesting villagers that they would find a solution by taking the party’s central leadership into confidence to overturn the government’s decision, after which the protesters had dispersed peacefully.
However, living up to their words that they will continue protests if their demands aren’t met, the Oukhoo residents, today, protested in front of the Srinagar Press Enclave. “Where will the residents of Kakapora Oukhoo go, if the CRPF camp is set up there? It’s agricultural land and our livelihood is wholly and solely dependent on it,” said the protesting residents.
The protesting villagers said that the administration is snatching their livelihood. “Is this the Naya Kashmir that Modi says has developed? We are 800 families in the village who are on the verge of losing livelihood,” they said.
Rubeena Akhter, the deputy sarpanch of the village, who also led the protest told The Kashmiriyat that the villagers demand from the Lieutenant Governor of the erstwhile state and Prime Minister Modi that the order for the land to be given for building CRPF Camp be taken back.
“It was state’s land some decades ago but was allotted to us back then. We have cultivated the land since then. We produce seasonal crops on this land. The governments, in the past, had built two irrigation canals for the cultivation of the land,” she iterated.
“We want justice. We will fight tooth and nail to protect our land. Our children will be compelled to take the wrong path due to the unjust decision of the administration,” she said. Rubeena also added that their children are about the age to be married. “Who will marry them if they don’t have any land or home? No one cares about us,” she said.
How much land has been identified for transfer?
It is pertinent to mention that on October 28, the Administrative Council (AC) under the chairmanship of Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha, approved the proposal of transferring nearly 524 kanal and 11 marlas of land for the construction of CRPF camps in Kashmir. The land has been identified in 5 villages of Shopian, 3 villages of Pulwama, and 3 villages also from Anantnag district.
As reported earlier, in Pulwama district, 80 kanal of land have been identified for transfer to the CRPF in the Oukhoo village of Kakapora, 24.16 kanal in Kadlabal Pampore and 60 kanal in Koil village.
The administration, in the Shopian district, has identified nearly 150 kanal of land for transfer in Allowpora and Sheikhpora villages, 20 kanal in the Batapora village and 22.8 kanal in Zawoora and Badarhama villages.
Meanwhile, in the Anantnag district, 99.8 kanal of land have to be transferred to Brah village of Shangus tehsil, 40 kanal from Jumo Pahalgam and 27 kanal from Subhanpahri Bijbehara.
The sources suggest that land transferred to CRPF is ‘state land’ and some portion is ‘Shamliat deh’ (Mehfooz Kahcharie). Also, the transfer value of the land shall be paid as per the Stamp Duty Rates and further, the land will be used for the purpose for which the sanction of transfer has been accorded.
Two villages share the 80 kanal to be transferred to CRPF
Danish (25), a local from Oukhoo village, while talking to The Kashmiriyat said that as long as he has lived, he has seen his family cultivate the land. “And my grandfather, too, has cultivated the same land in his times,” he said. 4 kanal of the land owned by Danish’s family has figured among the 80 kanal of the land to be transferred to the CRPF.
Danish told The Kashmiriyat that two villages share the land which is to be transferred to the CRPF. He says that although the majority of the land belongs to the residents of Oukhoo, some portion of this 80 kanal is also shared by a neighboring village, Sethargund. “Residents from both Oukhoo and Sethargund gather to stage protests against the administration order. Families from both the villages are dependent on the land,” Danish says.
He said that sometime back, the land was acquired from the villagers in order to build a Railway Station. “The locals were assured government jobs, but none of that happened. And this was the only land left with us for agricultural purposes. The majority of livelihoods in the village depend upon this land. Where will this leave us?”
“Over the years, we’ve grown Rice and Wheat on our land. Until 1967, we cultivated wheat crops. After that, however, locals also started cultivating Rice after Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed provided Kashmir’s first Irrigation Scheme,” Danish claimed.
Danish also said that the administration’s claims that the land was an open ground were false. “It’s agricultural land. We have been cultivating crops here. Earlier governments also provided us irrigation facilities,” he said.
Danish said that the land has been in possession of farmers for ages. He said that the villagers are not well-read. “Most of us are uneducated and nobody from our ancestors felt the need to get the land registered. They assumed that the state had asked them to grow crops on the land and the state would never snatch it from them,” Danish said.
He told The Kashmiriyat that the administration had been charging them money all the while for using the water from the irrigation scheme. “my family recently paid more than 15,000 towards the administration for our fields. How ironic is it that the Government provided us water for illegally occupied Land?” Danish asked.
Meanwhile, Rubeena Akhtar, the Deputy sarpanch, who also lead the protest told The Kashmiriyat that the 1971 Land Records clearly state the ownership of land in the area.
“Another issue,” Danish added was, “There are several houses constructed near the land figured for transfer. It is going to cause us a lot of problems in the future. Who knows they will want to acquire those houses, too? They are not backing off from acquiring our agricultural land, after all.”
“Nothing of this sort has ever happened to us. These issues have started arising after the abrogation of the article. We never thought this would happen. We started receiving eviction notices after abrogation. But it was only after some people came to the village for conducting soil tests that we believed our land will be taken away,” he said.
“We want the administration to take back the order. Where will we go, otherwise? The order has caused us a lot of distress,” he said.
What do the officials say?
The Kashmiriyat contacted a senior revenue official from Pulwama district who chose to remain anonymous in the matter. The official told us that it was the state’s land. The administration had also sought papers from the local residents, the official said, “but they could not provide it.”
When asked whether agricultural land could be converted for construction purposes, the official said that the land was passed under the Strategic Areas Act.
He also said that the last month the officials of the revenue Department tested the soil and gave a positive report. He said that the Government Forces are in “haste” to acquire the land in the area.
Last year, the government of India passed the Strategic Areas Act, which lifted a requirement set in place by a 1971 circular under which the government forces had to obtain a special certificate to acquire land in the region.
The order allows “Indian Army, Border Security Forces, paramilitary forces and similar organizations” to acquire land without a “No Objection Certificate” (NOC) clearance from the region’s home department.
Meanwhile, as reported earlier, the CRPF has written to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to expedite the transfer of recently allotted 65.5 acres of prime real estate to it in Jammu Kashmir.
News reports also suggested that the security forces have requested for more land.
The CRPF had written letter around two weeks ago asking the MHA to grant funds, which it could then pay to the Jammu Kashmir administration to take over the land allotted and initiate the process of construction for paramilitary personnel.
“The request for more land from CRPF has been received and it is being looked into,” an official in MHA had said, as per reports.