Despite growing public concern about the ongoing anti-encroachment drive, Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha has assured residents that the administration will protect residents and the common man's livelihood. It is a welcome statement from the top administrator of the Union Territory of Jammu Kashmir that may relieve some of the tension among a large number of people who have either been living on a reasonable small piece of state land or earning a living or who have purchased such small land holdings under the Roshni Scheme by following due process of law.
The anti-encroachment campaign has received harsh criticism from almost all major political parties, and it has sparked protests in some areas.
Sinha dismissed as “misinformation” the claim that the anti-encroachment drive launched last month across Jammu and Kashmir will have an impact on the common man. The detractors of the Anti-encroachment drive have projected it as the Government's eviction drive to render people homeless and jobless.
Similar statements have been made previously by the LG and the Chief Secretary, but the opposition parties have labelled the government's policy of making people homeless as ruthless.
The administration should not take the people's panicked reaction lightly when officials and sleuths retrieve the land or demolish some structure without recourse for the affected person.
While the LG or chief secretary assures people that the administration will protect the common man's habitations and livelihoods, only influential and powerful people who abuse their position and violate the law to encroach on state land will face the law of the land. The statement should reflect the spirit in actions at ground.
Sinha is correct when he says that the Deputy Commissioners should be aware of the next day's activity and that the media should be made aware of the names behind the encroachment of land so that the common man can learn the truth about who has retrieved the illegally encroached state land.
Why does the administration not reveal the names of those targeted by the anti-encroachment campaign at the time?
The Information Department's press releases simply mention the volume of land retrieved from a specific locality and, at most, that ‘….. the land is retrieved from some powerful person etc. etc..'
Who is hiding the names, let the administration find? Whether it is suppressed by district authorities who are carrying out the drive or by the Information Department that shares the information and details about the land retrieval action.
The majority of state and forest land has been illegally encroached upon by a well-knit nexus of politicians, police officers, bureaucrats (both active and retired), and land mafia.
People will understand the focus of the anti-encroachment drive if the names of these influential people are shared in the media.
This would further isolate the ill-intentioned politicians who have been spreading misinformation among commoners and taking shields behind the ordinary protesters and causing uproar due to eviction fears.
Allow for transparency in the action and inform the public about the big sharks from whom the administration has retrieved state land. The act would give credence to the well intentioned drive in public interest.
