Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir government on Monday said that despite the implementation of new land laws in the region, “more than 90 percent land cannnot be sold to outsiders”.
Speaking at a special press conference over the issue in Jammu, J&K government’s official spokesperson, Rohit Kansal said that the 11 land laws repealed by the government were ” regressive, intrinsically contradictory mad outdated ” that had been replaced by a set of “modern, progressive and people friendly provisions” under the recent amendments.
Kansal said the repealed laws had been made “to serve the old agrarian based economy and were required to be modified for modern economic needs”.
The new land laws, he said, are modern and progressive even while affording adequate protection against alienation of land to outsiders”.
Kansal said that no agricultural land can be sold to any person from outside J&K, but only to a agriculturalist from J&K, one who cultivates land personally within the erstwhile state.
“The safeguard on agricultural land alone will ensure that more than 90 percent of land in the UT, which is an agricultural land, remains protected and with the people of J&K, ” he added.
Over the allegations by local political parties in J&K that J&K had been put “on sale” by virtue of the new land laws, Kansal said that it was due to “misinformation or perhaps lack of clarity”.

Reader correspondent