On Friday, former Chief Minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu Kashmir and the PDP President, Mehbooba Mufti, took to Twitter and criticized the administration’s decision of converting agricultural land to non-agricultural purposes.
The former C.M. said that the Jammu Kashmir administration’s new policy that enables conversion of agricultural land to nonagricultural purposes revealed their “nefarious designs of engineering demographic changes.”
“The development agenda is a ruse. Latest regulation doesn’t even require the 15 yr domicile certificate as a prerequisite,” Ms. Mufti said.
She added that after depriving locals of their rightful share of government jobs, “such abrupt policy decisions that pave the way for outsiders to buy land in J&K are taken only to further disempower locals.”
It is pertinent to mention that on Thursday, the Lieutenant Governor’s administration approved the regulations framed by the Board of Revenue for the conversion of Agricultural land for nonagricultural purposes.
“The regulations are necessitated after the legislative changes in the Land Revenue Act post-reorganisation of the erstwhile State. They have been issued to regulate the uncontrolled conversion of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes on the one hand and keep the developmental aspirations of the UT and the people on the other hand,” a spokesperson of the administration said.
The Collectors have been empowered to grant permission to the change in land use. “The powers have been delegated to the District Collectors to grant permission for land up to 12 ½ standard acres against a fee of 5% of the market value of the land notified under the Stamps Act,” the administration said.
This new order from the administration empowers the applicant to commence the non-agriculture use within one year from the date of the order.