New Delhi: The Union home ministry told Parliament on Wednesday that since the nullification of Article 370 on August 5, 2019, nine properties in Jammu & Kashmir have been given back to Kashmiri Hindus who had to flee the Valley due to terrorist violence in the early 1990s.
The government added that it was taking steps to restore several ancestral properties of Kashmiri Hindu families that left the region between 1990and 1992. According to estimates by the Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti (KPSS), of 75,343 Kashmiri Pandit families in January 1990, more than 70,000 fled till 1992.
Responding to a question on the issue by the Shiv Sena's Anil Desai, Union minister of state for home affairs, Nityanand Rai, said in Rajya Sabha: “Regarding restoration of properties to its rightful and original owner, nine properties have been restored, as per the information provided by the government of Jammu & Kashmir.”
He said that under the J&K Migrant Immovable Property (Preservation, Protection & Restraint on Distress Sales) Act, 1997, district magistrates (DMs) in Jammu & Kashmir are the legal custodians of immovable properties of migrants, and take suo motu action on eviction proceedings in cases of encroachment. The migrants can also request the DMs for action, Rai added
The minister said after the Article 370 move, 520 Kashmiri migrants returned to the Valley to take up jobs under the Prime Minister's Development Package-2015.
On August 5, 2019, the Centre effectively revoked Article 370, which bestowed special status to the erstwhile state, and Article 35A, which barred non-locals from buying or owning immovable property in Jammu & Kashmir, settling there permanently, or availing benefits of state-sponsored scholarship schemes. The constitutional provision acknowledged the special status of the (then) state of Jammu & Kashmir in terms of autonomy and its ability to formulate laws for the state's permanent residents.
On a separate question on whether domicile or permanent resident certificates are needed to buy non-agricultural land in Jammu & Kashmir, Rai said all provisions of the Constitution have been made applicable to the Union territory, which necessitated changes in existing laws in J&K.
He said as per the adapted land laws of Jammu & Kashmir, the government may, by notification in the official gazette, allow transfer of land for public purposes such as education, health care and charitable purpose.
On Tuesday, the home ministry told Parliament that only two people from outside J&K have brought properties in the UT since the laws were changed two years ago.
