Anantnag: The Anantnag district administration in south Kashmir has initiated action against senior National Conference leader and former legislator from Pahalgam constituency Altaf Kaloo and his close relatives for alleged encroachment and illegal collection of rent, sources said on Tuesday. According to a senior revenue official, a patch of Shamilat land in excess of 100 kanals at the Estate Jammo area in Aishmuqam had been delineated as proprietary land by tampering with revenue records by the NC leader and relatives.
The former legislator and his close relatives have been receiving rent on this piece of land while factually the said land is Shamilat land and belongs to the community, the official said. The said land has been rented out to the Armed Forces against payment of rent, he added. According to official sources, the matter is currently under investigation and the quantum of rent received fraudulently from the Armed Forces is being assessed and shall be recovered.
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While the tampered revenue records have already been expunged by way of legal procedures, the rent shall be recovered after assessment of the amount in coordination with the Armed Forces, said an official. It was learnt that the former legislator is also under scanner for encroachment of migrant land at various places in Aishmuqam.
A senior official said that a couple of such mutations have come under the scanner in which proper procedure has not been adopted and the matter is under investigation. The Jammu and Kashmir government has intensified its campaign to retrieve the land from encroachments. Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Thursday said that “only influential and powerful people who misused their position to encroach upon the State land would be evicted in the Union Territory (UT)”. The L-G administration has passed directions to all deputy commissioners to evict illegal occupiers from the State land in J&K by January 31 this year.
