Srinagar: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha unveiled a plan on Friday to allocate land to “homeless” families in J&K saying that only J&K residents recognised under the domicile policy will be the beneficiaries of the “scheme.” However, this move has stirred concerns among unionists, who are raising questioning the number of “homeless” families and fearing demographic change.
The controversy stems from the uncertainty surrounding the number of homeless (families) in Jammu and Kashmir. According to official figures from the 2001 and 2011 census, the number of homeless people rose from 2,130 in 2001 to 3,076 in 2011.
Upon announcing the policy in July of this year, the Lieutenant Governor disclosed that 2,711 landless families had already received land allocations, and an extensive total of 199,550 families had been identified.
Swiftly responding to the announcement, Mehbooba Mufti, the President of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) and former Chief Minister of J&K, referred to government data from 2021, which was presented before the Indian parliament. The data indicated that only 19,000 homeless families existed in Jammu and Kashmir.
Mufti questioned the source of the remaining 2 lakh "homeless" families, raising a pertinent inquiry.
In a similar vein, the National Conference (NC) and the People's Conference (PC) also joined the chorus of queries about the policy.
However, the Lieutenant Governor defended the policy by emphasizing that eligibility for government land isn't limited to “elites.”
In July 7, LG marked a firm stance to reinforce its commitment to the implementation of the 'land to landless' initiative in Jammu and Kashmir under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G).
“Gone are the days when they could treat government property and funds as their own. The same people are now misleading common folk,” he had said while criticising mainstream political parties.
This move comes against the backdrop of opposition from several political parties, who are apprehensive about the potential settlement of "outsiders" in the region.
In a Press conference today, Suhail Bukhari, the chief spokesperson of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has called for increased transparency from the administration regarding the intentions and implications of a land distribution scheme in Jammu and Kashmir.
Initially, the administration informed that there were two lakh landless families, but later, they admitted that the number was lesser. And now, when they issued the guidelines, they said that the eligibility of this scheme would be the domicile of Jammu and Kashmir. Now, we know that this administration had issued domicile certificates to a number of people who essentially are not originally residents of Jammu and Kashmir. But, by means of this order they would be eligible for this scheme,” he said.
Hence, the apprehensions that were raised by people at large which were also echoed and represented by the PDP and its president Mehbooba Mufti, seem to be getting strengthened, he said.
Bukhari said they believe that there is a “project of the current dispensation to change the demography and the social composition of this place”.
“And, they have been working towards it one thing at a time. And there are reasons to believe the intentions are such because we look at various incidents such as - flats through J&K housing board to non-locals, those do not belong to J&K per se, is one such instance and now this particular thing,” he alleged.
So, we demand the administration to come clean and reveal how many domicile certificates have been issued so far, how many of them are original state subjects of Jammu and Kashmir, and how many of them are those who did not belong to Jammu and Kashmir before that, he said.
As far as the eligibility of this scheme is concerned, that should also be cleared, Bukhari demanded.
"That only those domicile certificate holders will get land under this scheme who are the original state subjects? Or, they also include people who are domiciles but not original state subjects of this place,” he said.