Zakura land

State administration has transferred 60 kanals of land at Zakura on outskirts of Srinagar to CRPF against consideration of money. The land originally belonged to Horticulture Produce Corporation and it was occupied by forces in 1990. Although the land was in possession of CRPF, but the Horticulture Corporation has been requesting the government that it should be vacated by the forces so that they can use and utilize the land for horticulture purposes.

The transfer of land to CRPF has created lot of ripples in the political circles of Kashmir and most of the mainstream political parties have opposed the decision of Governor’s administration. Apart from political parties, the other limbs of society like civil society and Kashmir Chamber of Commerce have expressed sharp concern over the transfer of land to CRPF at Zakura.

The Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry has voiced serious concern over the decision of the State Government on leasing out 60 kanals of industrial land to the security Forces and dropped hints to challenge the government’s decision in the High Court.

They were right when they said that business community of the State was suffering due to the non-availability of land and the KCC&I is on record to have asked the Government, time and again, to retrieve land wasted under the occupation of Government Public Sector Undertakings (PSU’s) to make the same available for industrial and commercial use.

It was surprising that instead the Government had recently announced that it was in the process of identification of land for creation of small Satellite Industrial Estates of around 40 kanals, the huge chunks of prime industrial land were being converted into camps and residential quarters for security forces.