An organisation of Kashmiri Pandits today flayed the Jammu and Kashmir government over its claim that there was no encroachment on temple land in the Valley, alleging a "multi-crore scam in the illegal transfer of temple land to various people."
"There is a multi-crore scam involved in it as the land of these temples has been illegally transferred to various people. There is large scale encroachment of these properties but the government, even after repeated submissions by our outfit, has not probed into it.
"They are working at the behest of land mafia," All Party Migrants Co-ordination Committee (APMCC) chairman, Vinod Pandit, said today.
Minister of state for Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation, Aijaz Ahmad Khan, in a written reply to a question from National Conference legislator Vijay Bakaya in the Legislative Council had stated that 448 temples existed in the Valley and the land attached to them was nearly 210 acres.
He added that there were no encroachments made on the land attached to these temples.
However, Pandit claimed that his party has already submitted names of the temples whose land has been encroached to the government.
"The claims made by the government are not correct. We have recently submitted a list of the temples and other religious places, whose land has been encroached, to Aijaz Ahmad Khan," Pandit claimed.
He also questioned the area of the land which the government claimed was attached to these temples.
"How is it possible that only about 210 acres of land is attached to these temples, when more than 85 acres of land was just with Uma Nagri temple in district Anantnag. What about the land attached with Shiva Bhagwati, Baba Dharamdas temple in Srinagar, Durga Nag Trust," Pandit questioned.
He also informed that in an RTI reply, the Archaeological Survey of India had mentioned that encroachments were made on the land of Naran Nag in district Ganderbal.
"In a reply to an RTI filed by our party, the ASI admitted that encroachments were made on the land attached to Naran Nag Shrine in Ganderbal, but still the state government is saying that no encroachments have been made," he said.
Pandit said that earlier on February 28, a delegation of APMCC members had interacted with the Minister and pressed their demand for the passage of the Temples and Shrines Bill, besides insisting upon a probe into the alleged encroachments on the properties of the temples.
APMCC chief went on to a 15-day long fast-unto-death in Porbandar from January 30 in support of six-point charter of demands, including the probe into the multi-crore temple and shrines land encroachment in Kashmir.
