‘Legal land grabbing’ in Gulmarg?

Power of money or rule of law; What will prevail?  

Tariq Bhat / Dr. Pradeep Kumar

 

Srinagar, June 19: The lease agreement between maximum number of Hoteliers and government in the famous ski resort Gulmarg have expired around a decade ago.

Highly placed sources told ANN News that around 86 hoteliers are operating on government land without any existing lease agreement as the agreement entered have expired around decade ago and in many cases around two decades ago.

 

 

Some hoteliers have even encroached the adjacent land of the allotted area.

“Thus, government exchequer is facing losses given the fact that hundreds of kanals of land enriches these hoteliers and public exchequer gets nothing in return,” said an official.  
Officials in J&K Tourism Department said that technically 90 percent of lease has been expired and within next few months ten percent will also expire.

 

 

 

“Once granted lease rules can be extended upto 90 years and further it is extendable up to 10 years at the choice of government. However majority of the hotels are running here without any existing lease agreement,” said an official.
He said that thought the authorities have time and again issued notices to the hoteliers to vacate the land but due to political pressure in past the officials didn’t take later any action under law.
The on spot visit reveals that hundreds of kanals of land in Gulmarg has been occupied by some people illegally while others have stretched the original allotment to hundreds of kanals unlawfully.
The J&K and Ladakh High Court had also directed the Government to strictly adhere to the procedures of land lease in Ski resort of Gulmarg so that no land is illegally occupied on the premises that have been grabbed for decades.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Alok Aradhe had observed that there are persons who have no allotment of land in their favour and are in possession of hundreds of kanals of land without any authority of law.
If sources are to be believed, the government has initiated the process for collection of details of all those cases where land has been given on lease and simultaneously has expired.
In the year 2006-07 the tourist destination of Gulmarg was to be converted into ownership properties under the Roshni Scheme. The scheme was later declared null and void by J&K High Court in 2020.

“The government is mulling to evacuate all those whose lease have been expired and to go for fresh auction,” said an official.  

There are also allegations that some of the hoteliers used to provide “safe places” in hotel rooms in Gulmarg to terrorist and also used to fund terrorist activities from the revenue generated from government allotted leases.  

On Sunday (19 June 2022), sleuths of the Central Bureau Investigation (CBI) raided the residential house of Showkat Chaudhary who is the owner of Hattrick Food Industries, at Choudhary Bagh Zakura.

In April this year Chaudhary met Prime Minister Modi along with other top businessmen of the valley in New Delhi.

In their memorandum presented to PM, one of the paras in memorandum about Gulmarg leased land reads: “This is affecting not only the business of the stake holders but is creating a bad name. It is our humble submission that the Government UT of Jammu and Kashmir may take a sympathetic view to extend the lease for a further period of 40 years with permission to renovate the properties which are in deplorable condition.”

BJP leader Darakshan Andrabi told ANN News that beneficiaries of Roshni Act are not “illegal occupants.”

“It was top businessmen of Kashmir those called on Prime Minister. No one among them is land grabber. Prime Minister had invited businessmen belonging to Kashmir and not from Jammu,’ she said while responding to a query.  

“All eyes are on government as how its deals with the irregularities, scams and complaints of corruption. People want to see how the white color terrorist are dealt with who encroached land on gun points, funded terrorism and anti-national elements in Kashmir,” said one of the senior professors at Kashmir University.