SRINAGAR: Only one village in Jammu and Kashmir is currently undergoing a fresh settlement process, while conventional settlement operations across the Union Territory ended in 2014, the Revenue Department has informed the Legislative Assembly.
The village, Tujar Pehlihaar in Baramulla district, is expected to complete the fresh settlement process in 2027, according to a written reply to a starred question by MLA Waheed ur Rehman Para.
The government said conventional settlement operations, which involved re-surveying, updating and correcting land records, continued from the 1990s until 2014. The process was closed following the creation and reorganisation of administrative units that year, after which the focus shifted to maintenance, updating, computerisation and digitisation of land records.
Of the 20 districts listed in the government’s district-wise data, only one village in Baramulla is shown as having settlement work under process. The department reported that settlement had been completed in 46 of the district’s 544 villages.
The highest number of completed settlements was reported in Jammu district, where 419 of 915 villages had completed settlement. Budgam followed with 278 of 503 villages, while Pulwama had completed settlement in 199 of 347 villages and Kulgam in 175 of 273 villages.
In the remaining districts, the government reported completed settlement in 174 of 396 villages in Udhampur, 150 of 533 in Kathua, 80 of 173 in Ramban, 74 of 394 in Anantnag, 64 of 379 in Kupwara, 58 of 138 in Ganderbal, 38 of 237 in Shopian, 36 each in Reasi and Samba, 33 of 137 in Srinagar, 19 of 390 in Rajouri, seven of 124 in Bandipora and three of 400 villages in Doda.
No completed settlement was reported in Kishtwar or Poonch.
The government also disclosed 2,521 complaints concerning errors or discrepancies in settlement records across the districts listed in its reply. Of these, 1,434 had been disposed of, leaving 1,087 pending. The department estimated that the outstanding complaints would take six to eight months to resolve.
Jammu accounted for the highest number of complaints at 962, of which 778 had been disposed of. Udhampur recorded 426 complaints, with 361 disposed of.
Srinagar had 304 complaints but only 11 had been disposed of, while Pulwama reported 195 cases, of which 20 had been resolved. Ganderbal had 140 complaints, with five disposed of, and Ramban had 122, of which 71 had been settled.
The government said complaints and discrepancies in settlement records are dealt with under the statutory mechanism provided by the J&K Land Revenue Act. Such grievances are considered individually by the competent Revenue authorities, including under Section 27 of the Act.
On the area of land affected by discrepancies, the government did not provide a district-wise figure in kanals. Instead, it said errors noticed in land records are addressed through the prescribed legal mechanism on a case-by-case basis.
