Pulwama disctrict commissioner Baseer Ul Haq Chaudary said the villagers were in illegal possession of the land all these years
Haji Ghulam Mohd Alai, posing for a picture near his land which adminstration has decided to transfer for the construction of a CRPF camp. Image courtesy: Quratulain Rehbar
Haji Abdul Gani, an 80-year-old farmer from Oukhoo, a village in Pulwama, has seen his forefathers cultivating paddy, mustard, wheat and a variety of vegetables on land which the administration in Kashmir has now decided to transfer for the construction of a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp.
For the past few days whenever Gani wakes up, he walks out of his home’s main door and stares at the piece of land. He fears its loss.
Villagers in Pulwama’s Oukhoo and Sathur see this recent step by the Jammu and Kashmir administration as a threat to their livelihood.
The locals have been receiving eviction notices soon after the Article 370 was abrogated in Jammu and Kashmir.
The administration has decided to transfer 80 Kanals of land, which the villagers claim is agricultural land they have cultivated for at least a decade, for the construction of the CRPF camp.
Revenue officials have classified the land as “barren” in accordance with the 2007 regulations.
Khadija Bano, a local woman farmer working in her vegetable garden. Image courtesy: Quratulain Rehbar
“This is what we have. If this piece of land will be snatched from us then we will have to beg. Our children are farmers, we don’t have jobs, we rely on this land,”said a restless Gani.
According to local farmers, two irrigation canals were also built some years ago to make the land cultivable.
According to villagers, the land records from 1971 clearly state who owns the land and how much of it is cultivated.
“How could they use this agricultural land for a construction purpose?” asked Ali Mohammad Alai, a local. He said a few people in the administration have been claiming that the land is not agricultural land.
Baseer Ul Haq Chaudary, district commissioner, Puwlama, said the villagers were in “illegal” possession of the land all these years.
“Their claim that it’s their land isn’t true. They don’t have any legal papers to show that. That’s why the UT administration has decided to transfer this land for construction purposes as it was in their unlawful possession,” Chaudary said.
Abdul Rashid, the village head, said that there was little education among their elders and that none of them had been been to school.
“They are uneducated farmers who wouldn’t have thought of making legal papers,” Rashid pointed out.
As per the Population Census 2011, Oukhoo is a medium size village with a total of 215 families. Oukhoo village has a population of 1,152 of which 593 are men and 559 are women.
The census also shows that Oukhoo village has low literacy rate.
Khadija Bano, 50, a woman farmer whose husband was killed in a crossfire in 1999, said that she and her four daughters are dependent on the income generated by this land.
“I cultivate paddy and vegetables on my three Kanals of land and sell it. That’s how I feed my daughters. If the government takes this land from us, I don’t know where we will go,” Bano said.
The administration recently announced a farmer training college to be established on around 60 Kanals of land, following which a stadium has also been announced to be built on 40 Kanals. The earmarking of about 80 Kanals of land for CRPF camping is the latest blow to the villagers.
Gani said that his family owns 15 Kanals of land in the vicinity on which they cultivate mustard and paddy and sell it.
Haji Abdul Gani Alai, 80, along with other local women farmers at Pulwama’s Oukhoo. Image courtesy: Quratulain Rehbar
“Almost the majority of us get our food from this land. We don’t have jobs. What will we give to our children if this land will be snatched from us?” he asked.
On 13 November, residents of Oukhoo including elected representatives and village panches at a protest demanded the intervention of authorities on humanitarian grounds.
The administrative council chaired by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha had approved the transfer of 523 Kanals or 65 acres in favour of the CRPF in Anantnag, Pulwama and Shopian for establishing “battalion camping sites.”
Village head Rashid said 200 Kanals (25 acres or 10.1 hectares) of state land was marked as agricultural land in Oukhoo and Sathur villages till 2007 after which revenue records were revised.
100 Kanals (12.5 acres or 5.05 hectares) was recently transferred for some farming training college and a sports stadium.
This land sustains almost 800 families who grow paddy, wheat, and mustard. The farmers also said that their cattle feed also comes from this land.
“We were given cows for livelihood some years ago But we feed them by cultivating grass on this land. We won’t be able to take care of our cattle,” a local woman, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.
“All my years I have paid taxes for cultivating this land. I even have the receipts with me,” she added.
Oukhoo is known for making pencil slats and it is estimated that approximately 60 percent of the pencils that are made in India originate from this village.
A few weeks after the farmers harvested the paddy on the stretch of 80 Kanals (10 hectares) of land this year, villagers said officials, accompanied by police, warned them against harvesting the land.
“Some soil testing was conducted,” said a local.
It was during Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad’s tenure in the late 1950s that the land was divided among the people for cultivation.