Agencies:

More than 90 % land cannot be sold to outsiders: Govt

November 3, 2020

�Government has repealed 11 land laws that existed in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir replacing the old, regressive, intrinsically contradictory and outdated laws with a set of modern, progressive and people friendly provisions,� the Government said on Monday.

�The new land laws will not only afford protection to over 90% of the land in J&K from being alienated to outsiders but will also help revamp the agriculture sector foster, rapid industrialization, aid economic growth and create jobs in J&K.�

This was stated by the Principal Secretary Information and Government spokesman Rohit Kansal at a press conference in Jammu today. Kansal made these comments while interacting with the media on a host of issues related to the U.T of Jammu and Kashmir Re-organization (Adaptation of state laws) Fifth Order, 2020.

Elaborating, Kansal remarked that the repealed laws were made to serve the old agrarian based economy and were required to be modified for modern economic needs. �Besides, they were beset with ambiguities, contradictions and redundancies and in many cases, were clearly regressive. For instance, a number of laws had contradictions leading to scope for discretionary interpretation and rent seeking e.g. �Family� was defined differently in different laws, provision of alienation and conversion of land were different in different laws and the ceiling of 182 kanals fixed in Big Landed Estates Abolition Act was superseded by 100 standard kanals in the Agrarian Reforms act, 1976 yet both provisions continued to coexist creating contradiction and confusion.�

�The Prohibition of Conversion of Land and Alienation of Orchards Act, 1975 not only prohibited alienation of orchard lands; it surprisingly restricted creation of new orchards too. Similarly, the old Agrarian Reforms Act prohibited the selling of land distributed to tillers even after 44 years. The Right of prior Purchase act severely constrained an owner�s right to dispose off his own property,� he said.