Srinagar: Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Friday demanded India’s defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman to speeding up the cases of land vacation by the Army in various parts of the Jammu and Kashmir.
In her meeting Sitharaman, who called her here, Mehbooba also demanded release of rent dues in favour of owners whose land is in possession of the Army, an official spokesman said.
“She sought intervention of the Defence Minister for the return of certain pockets of land in the State which are no longer required for operational purposes by the Army and about which consensus has already been arrived between State Government and the Defence Ministry,” the spokesman said.
The two leaders also discussed several strategic issues related to prevailing situation in the State during the meeting.
Mehbooba also raised with the Defence Minister pacing up of work on some important roads in the State being constructed by the Border Roads Organisation like four lanning of Srinagar- Baramulla –Uri road, Rajouri- Thanamandi- Surankote road, four lanning of Akhnoor- Poonch road, Reasi- Arnas – Mahore road, Turtuk – Hanuthang. She also pitched for construction of tunnels at Razdan pass on Bandipore- Gurez road and Sadhna pass on Kupwara-Tanghdar road.
The Chief Minister also flagged the idea of opening areas like Battalik, Siachin base and other areas for tourist activities including trekking, mountain biking etc.
“Nirmala Sitharaman assured Mehbooba Mufti to look into the issues raised by her in a time bound manner,” the spokesman said.
Army Chief, Gen. Bipin Rawat; Principal Secretary, Home, R. K. Goyal; Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Rohit Kansal and other senior officers of State and Central Governments were present on the occasion.
In 2014, then Chief Minister of the state, Omar Abdullah had also divulged that 66,690 kanals and 10 marals of land was under the unauthorised occupation of the Army and paramilitary forces and that no rent had been paid to the land owners against the use of occupied lands.
In January last year, the present government constituted a 3-member high-powered committee to monitor the decisions taken at Civil-Military Liaison (CML) Conference on 29 September 2015 relating to the Gulmarg, High Ground Anantnag, Tattoo Ground, Khurbathang-Kargil, Jammu Airport and University Campus Jammu.
In the CML meeting, chaired by former Chief Minister late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, three months timeline had been set for the army to vacate High Ground Anantnag. Similarly, three months deadline was set for the army to vacate 139 acres of prime land at Tattoo ground Batamaloo that it has occupied for decades.
Sayeed had called for “delinking the vacation of land from all other issues” to enable the Government to develop basic facilities at ground in the heart of this summer capital of the state in the interest of general public.
The 29-September meeting had also agreed to direct a high-level Committee, constituted to work out the modalities for transfer of the 175.64 acres of land under the ‘unauthorised’ occupation of Army at Gulmarg, in lieu of the land to be exchanged for the Tattoo Ground. In fact, the decision to constitute the panel was taken at the CML conference chaired by then Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in November 2013.
The CML conference had also taken decision regarding vacation of Lower Khurbathong by the Army in Kargil.
ADVERTISEMENT
