J&K BJP demands SIT probe against revenue officials over state land encroachment

Jammu, Feb 7 (PTI) Jammu and Kashmir Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) on Tuesday demanded a probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) against revenue officials for changing revenue records of state lands and selling them to people.

“They Changed the titles of the lands from state land to private lands in a massive way”, he said, adding that this encroachment of thousands of hectares of land in Jammu is the “biggest land scam” worth crores of rupees.

“We seek a probe against the revenue officials – Patwaris, Girdawarees and tehsildars who tempered with records and changed the revenue records of the state and government lands as private lands. We want action against them,” J&K BJP Chief Ravinder Raina told reporters here.

“There should be an assessment of the properties of all those revenue officials, land mafia involved in this scam. They should be arrested and their properties should be confiscated”, he added.

Raina said Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha has already made it clear that action would be taken against the officials involved without any prior notice.

“No poor will be hit. The eviction of encroachers from government lands is the order of the High court and Supreme court”, he said, adding, “He said that they will not be effected. LG said that as it is court order we cannot directly make any policy. With the consent of court, policy will be formed.”

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Tuesday held demonstrations against the ongoing anti-encroachment drive by the Jammu and Kashmir administration, saying that it was affecting poor people.