Massive hike in rentals for land hired by armed forces in J

New Delhi, Apr 4 (UNI) The Centre today announced a massive hike in rentals for the land hired or requisitioned by the armed forces in Jammu and Kashmir.

The hike is in the range of 2.1 to 5 times for various categories of land.

The revised rate structure would come into effect retrospectively from February 16 this year and remain in force for five years till February 15, 2013.

The measures, taken at Defence Minister A K Antony's initiative, were aimed at providing succour to the people of the state as they would now get a realistic payment for their land.

The decision comes close on the heels of Mr Antony's visit to the Kashmir 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 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.

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 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 July 12, 2007 was that the revision of rents and compensation paid for lands should be done in a more realistic manner.

Subsequently, a meeting was held under the Chairmanship of Mr Antony and Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on October 27, 2007 at Srinagar to review the security situation in the troubled state.

One of the decisions taken during the meeting was the state government would submit proposals for revision of rentals for the requisitioned and hired properties to the Defence Ministry.

The rates of rentals for the requisitioned land for armed forces in Jammu and Kashmir were being revised every five years.

These were last revised on February 16, 2003.

UNI AG MSJ BST1330