Wathora (Budgam, Kashmir): Ghulam Mohammad Bhat reluctantly surrendered nearly four kanal land to the Jammu and Kashmir government in 2017 to pave the way for the construction of the Srinagar ring road, a new four-lane highway around J&K’s summer capital.
Hailing from the rural belt of Wathora in central Kashmir’s Budgam district, some 14 kms from Srinagar, Bhat had hoped that the new highway would be laden with better economic opportunities.
Ghulam Mohammed Bhat. Photo: Jehangir Ali for The Wire
Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the project in 2018 when the People’s Democratic Party-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance was in power in J&K. The project is being executed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
Nearly 600 acres of prime agricultural land with islands of human habitation were acquired by the government for the highway in 2017, with the stated purpose of addressing the crisis of “urban sprawl” in Srinagar.
Although the land transfer agreement allegedly lapsed in 2019, authorities compensated Bhat and other farmers in 2021 as per the Jammu and Kashmir Land Acquisition Act of 1934, an archaic land law which was applicable to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. The work on the highway started in 2022.
Even though agriculture is the mainstay of J&K’s economy, the highway was carved through agricultural land and orchards in Ganderbal, Pulwama, Bandipora, Baramulla and Budgam districts of Kashmir besides Srinagar, despite local resentment.
In one fell swoop, thousands of fruit trees were felled.
“The government compensation was less than half the market price which forced us to knock on the doors of the Supreme Court. The case has been admitted and we are hopeful that justice will be done,” said Bhat.
With the work nearing completion, the government has set another proposal in motion to build satellite townships along the 60-km length of the highway, deepening fears and anxieties of displacement, loss of livelihood and ecological desecration among farmers, residents and activists.
Official documents show that the union territory administration under lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha approved the proposal on March 28, 2022, to prepare “town planning schemes” within 500 metres on both sides of the ring road.
The documents reveal that 30 town planning schemes are going to be taken up along the length of the highway. Each scheme would cover an average of 200 hectares of land acquired through “land pooling” from Gallandhar in south Kashmir’s Pulwama to Tulmulla in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal and Mirgund of north Kashmir’s Baramulla district.
A farmer walks across a paddy field in the Wathora village of Budgam district, which is split into two by the Srinagar ring road. Photo: Jehangir Ali for The Wire
As per an official policy document, the “land pooling and plot re-adjustment scheme” would serve as a “long-term urban development strategy to ensure the availability of serviced urban land for controlled target-oriented outcome based urban growth.”
A revenue official, who spoke with The Wire on the condition of anonymity, said that the land for the satellite townships would be pooled by landowners themselves under “J&K Land Pooling Policy ’24: Partnering for Progress” and other relevant laws.
The policy was approved on July 27 by the Sinha-led administrative council, less than two months before Jammu and Kashmir witnessed its first assembly election in a decade. According to the policy, it is aimed to “facilitate planned urban development including infrastructure development, by obtaining land through the voluntary participation of land owners” which could be handed over to “private developers.”
“The landowners would get a share of the land or its equivalent in property after it has been serviced and developed,” the official said, adding that the scheme was a “win-win” situation for the landowners.
However, activists and some residents believe that the townships could deprive people of their source of livelihood and aggravate the climate crisis as much of the 48,000 kanals of land that are proposed to be taken up for development sustain the fledgling agriculture sector. Many also suspect that, under the BJP-led union government, the move could supplement the saffron party’s agenda of effecting a demographic change in J&K.
The impact of the townships is likely to be felt most intensely in Budgam, which is also one of the poorest districts of Kashmir. Nearly 400 acres of land were acquired in this central Kashmir district for the highway.
With 30 township schemes proposed to be developed as per official documents, the district would lose much of the 6,000 acres or 48,000 kanals of land that would be covered under the proposal.
Another resident of Wathora village, 55-year-old Mohammad Ashraf Najar, was one of the hundreds of farmers whose land was taken away by the government in 2017 and handed over to the NHAI.
Najar runs a furniture unit along the highway, which falls within 500 metres of the new highway. His small unit provides direct and indirect employment to more than four dozen men, according to Najar.
Mohammad Ashraf Najar. Photo: Jehangir Ali for The Wire
“If the government builds a township, where will we go? It took me 35 years to set up this small business. What will we do without it? I don’t have any land anymore and there are fewer opportunities around. I would be forced to commit suicide,” Najar said.
An official order issued by Imtiyaz Ahmad Budoo, the tehsildar of Budgam, has aggravated the concerns of Najar and others in Wathora.
Budoo had called a meeting with the officials of Budgam, Soibugh and Shoolipora revenue circles to verify the status of land on both sides of the ring road in Srinagar and Budgam districts on November 27. “The housing board has requested to furnish the title of the land… for feasibility of the proposed township project at Ring Road Srinagar,” the order said, adding that the issue should be treated as “most urgent.”
Budoo could not be reached for comment. Despite phone calls and text messages, Kashmir divisional commissioner Vijay Kumar Bidhuri also remained unreachable. This story would be updated if and when a response is received.
Activists believe that the townships would negatively impact the agriculture sector, the backbone of the economy in Jammu and Kashmir which benefits nearly 70% of the population directly or indirectly.
A 2021 report by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development stated that 85.9% farmers in J&K are small and marginal farmers with an average land holding of 0.66 hectares as against 0.74 hectares in the rest of the country.
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Last month, chief minister Omar Abdullah also expressed concern about how the story of the agriculture sector was being neglected in the narratives of J&K’s development.
Raja Muzaffar Bhat, a writer and an environmental activist, alleged that the townships defied J&K’s land use policies and violated the Srinagar master plan as well. He said that the proposed development will exact a heavy toll on the agriculture sector.
“What is the need of building these townships on prime agricultural land? Who will get the contracts for building them and who is going to live in these townships? These are important questions that the government needs to answer,” he said.
Bhat, who is based in Budgam, said that there are concerns among some people that the new townships could be used to effect a demographic change in Kashmir after the reading-down of Article 370 allegedly failed to enthuse people from other parts of the country to acquire land or businesses in the valley.
He added, “The union government has been speaking about doubling and tripling the income of farmers. We have already lost a lot of land to new highways and railway projects over the last few years. If there is no agricultural land, what will happen to our farmers? It is a catastrophe in the making.”
