Agencies:

PAGD rejects govt assertion on protection of farm land

Srinagar
November 4, 2020

The People�s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) on Tuesday rejected the J&K Government�s assertion that the bulk of the agricultural land would not be transferred to people from outside the UT.

The PAGD termed the earlier land laws of J&K the most progressive, pro-people and pro-farmer in the entire Indian subcontinent. �The PAGD rejects the statement of official spokesman on 26th October MHA order as bizarre attempt to distort facts, weave lies and mislead people,� the seven party alliance said in a statement.

It said the real object of the repeal of the basic land laws and the massive amendments to the other laws was to push in and implement the agenda of effecting �demographic change and disempowering� the people of J&K.

�J&K was the first in the country to implement the concept of land to tiller by enacting the Big Landed Estates Abolition Act, 1952 followed by Agrarian Reforms Act, 1976 restricting the land holding to twelve and half acres and ending the exploitative practice of absentee landlordism and whosoever calls it archaic, would be guilty of ignorance of the history of J&K. It is because of the timely land reforms that no starvation deaths occur in J&K, no farmer suicides have been ever reported from J&K and everyone in J&K has available three fundamental necessities � food, clothing and shelter, the position that is now sought to be reversed by making massive assault on the land law regime,� the statement added.

The PAGD asked how the Alienation of Land Act could be termed archaic when it prohibited transfer of land to a non-state subject thus protecting the interests of the permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir and at the same time, made a provision for transfer of land by mortgage to organizations like Industrial Development Bank of India, Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India to keep pace with industrial development.