NEW DELHI,4 APR :The Centre today decided to give a big hike in rentals for the land hired or requisitioned by the Armed Forces in Jammu & Kashmir. The hike is in the range of 2.1 to 5 times for various categories of land. The revised rate structure will come into effect retrospectively from 16 February 2008 and
will remain in force for five years- till 15 February 2013. The measures taken at the initiative of the Defence Minister Shri AK Antony, will provide succour to the people of the State who would now get a realistic payment for their land. The decision comes close on the heels of Shri Antony’s visit to the valley last Saturday.
For the Class-1 category of irrigated land, the rate per kanal per annum has been increased from Rs 1125 to Rs 3381 while for the ‘Irrigated-Double Cropped’ category the hike is still higher- from the existing Rs 1688 to Rs 4087 per kanal per annum. For the Class-II category of irrigated land, the rate has been increased from Rs. 1125 to Rs. 3200 and for the unirrigated category, the new rate is Rs. 1390 against the previous figure of Rs. 563 per kanal per annum. For the Class-III ‘Un-cultivable’ category, the increase is from the existing Rs 413 to the new figure of Rs 895.
For the fruit bearing orchards, the hike has been substantial- from the existing rate of Rs 1575 to Rs 10,000 per kanal per annum. For the land falling under Jammu Municipal Corporation, Srinagar Municipal Corporation, Poonch Municipal Council and Srinagar/Jammu Cantonment areas, the rate has been raised from Rs 6750 to Rs 33,750 per kanal per annum. Still, the rate for lands falling under Municipal Councils has been increased from Rs 3375 to Rs 16, 875 while that of lands falling under Municipal Committees, from Rs 2700 to Rs 13, 500 per kanal per annum.
It may be recalled that an Expert Panel was constituted by the Government to determine whether there was a need to re-locate and re-configure the existing Security Forces, keeping in mind the security requirements of the State and also to review the application of the Armed Forces(J & K) Special Powers Act, 1990.
The Expert Panel held several meetings and visited the State of Jammu and Kashmir to have a first hand assessment of the ground level situation in the State. One of the key recommendations of the Expert Panel which submitted its Report on 12 July 2007 was that the revision of rents/compensation paid for lands should be done in a more realistic manner. Subsequently, a meeting was held under the Chairmanship of Shri Antony and the State Chief Minister Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad on 27 October 2007 at Srinagar to review the security situation in Jammu & Kashmir. One of the decisions taken during the meeting was the State Government would submit proposals for revision of rentals for the requisitioned/ hired properties to the Ministry of Defence. The rates of rentals for the requisitioned land for Armed Forces in J&K are revised every five years and were last revised w.e.f February 16, 2003.