34 people from outside J&K have bought properties there since Article 370 repeal

New Delhi: Thirty-four people from other parts of India have bought properties in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) since the nullification of Constitution’s Article 370, which stripped the region of its semi-autonomous status in 2019, Union minister Nityanand Rai told Parliament on Tuesday. In his written reply, Rai did not provide details of the properties in Jammu, Reasi, Udhampur, and Ganderbal and their owners.

The Centre last year said two outsiders had purchased land in the region. Non-residents were barred from buying immovable properties in the erstwhile state of J&K before the repeal of the region’s special status in August 2019.

The Centre changed the land rules and omitted the phrase “permanent resident of the state” from Section 17 of the J&K Development Act, which deals with land in the region, to pave way for outsiders to buy it. The sale of non-agricultural is now permitted also to people who are not permanent residents or domiciles of the region.

Lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha in October 2020 said the amendments did not allow the transfer of agricultural land to non-agriculturists.

There are also exemptions, which enable the transfer of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes, including for setting up of educational or health care facilities. “Agricultural land has been reserved for farmers and no outsider is going to come into that. We are identifying industrial areas and we surely want that industries come here like other states of the country so that this place is developed, and youths get jobs,’ Sinha had said.

The changes to land law triggered sharp reactions from politicians in Kashmir, who said the decision was unacceptable and aimed to disempower the region’s people.