Dwindling of Agricultural Land |
Despite a blanket ban by government on conversion of agricultural land for other purposes, thousands of hectares of verdant paddy fields have turned into commercial areas and residential colonies. As per Section 133-A of the Jammu & Kashmir Land Revenue Act samvat 1996 (1899AD), no land which grows or has been growing shali crop, vegetables or saffron shall be used for any purpose other than agricultural purposes sans permission, in writing, of the Revenue Minister. A permission to convert the use of agricultural land for any non-agricultural purposes may be granted by the District Collector in Form-III after recommendations from the District Level Committee and after depositing requisite fee as prescribed by the government. The Department of Agriculture in J & K has raised (10/2023) a genuine alarm by informing that in a decade (2012-22 inferred) 33,309 hectares of paddy land, out of 1,62,309 hectares (in 2012), have been converted leaving a meager 1,29,000 hectares available for growing the crop. According to the department the area of paddy land in 2021 was 1,41,000 hectares and it was feared to decline to 1,35,000 hectares. Now the figure has dropped to 1,29,000 hectares which shows a steady decrease by 6,000 hectares yearly.
Often people attribute reasons for downward trend of the vast swaths of picturesque & lush green fertile agricultural lands to constructing educational & entertainment institutions, health care & sports utilities, malls & shopping complexes, expansions and addition to industrial estates, road widening and establishing of new roads. Factually these are the results and not the reasons some of which are summarized as........