As the former state of Jammu and Kashmir limps back to normalcy after the abrogation of Article 370 in August last year, a new land encroachment scam - 'Zameen Jihad' - has come to attention that aimed to change the demography of the region under the disguise of a legislation.
Through a law called the Roshni Act - the former state government legalised the ownership of government lands by illegal occupants by selling them at throwaway prices.
The practice, which has been going on for the last 17 years, is touted to be a ploy by the proponents of 'Islamic Jihad' to change the demography of the region.
Sources claim that under the Act, 25,000 people settled in the Jammu region - out of which, 90% were from the Muslim community.
Smelling a conspiracy to replace the Hindu majority population of Jammu, a petition has been filed in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court regarding the matter. An organisation named 'Ikkjutt Jammu' claimed that under the previous state governments, Muslim religious organisations, empowered by the aforementioned legislation laid claim to 50 lakh kanals of forest land. It also added that more than 100 mosques have been built in Jammu city, citing that there were only three mosques in 1994.
According to 2001 Census, the Hindu population in Jammu was around 65 per cent and Muslim population was around 31 per cent, but in 2011 census, the Hindus population in the Jammu region declined by about 3 per cent while the Muslim population increased by 3 per cent.
The legislation was scrapped in 2018 by the then Jammu and Kashmir governor, Satyapal Malik. “This enactment stands repealed on 28 November 2018, by the State Administrative Council (SAC) led by the governor annulling the Roshni Scheme after concluding that it had not served ‘its purpose’ and was ‘no longer relevant in the present context’,” an order from the Jammu and Kashmir High Court had said.
Moreover, the court asked for the return of the land captured illegally in the 25,500-odd cases in Jammu, and 4,500 cases in Kashmir.
The incident came to the fore in 2014 after a CAG report unveiled the scam worth around Rs 25,000 crore in J&K.
The matter is currently sub judice in Jammu and Kashmir High Court, with more discoveries yet to be made in the case.
