Jammu, Mar 15: Minister for Revenue Raman Bhalla today said that government is keen to regulate conversion of agricultural land for non agricultural purposes adding that several steps to address the concern regarding decline of agricultural land have been taken and in this connection a bill has already been introduced for the purpose which has been referred to the Joint select committee.
 He was replying to the bill moved by Dr. Bashir Ahmad Veeri to amend the Jammu and Kashmir Land Revenue Act Svt.1996 (1939 A.D).
 In a discussion Dr. Veeri said that according to the 8th Census report of Revenue department 9.62 lakh hectares of land was under operation for agriculture purpose. Similarly the contribution of agriculture has shown a declining trend since 1970-71 when it was 56.64 %, in 1980-81 it declined to 47.40%, in 2000-01 to 32.58%, and by 2010-11 it has reached 19.36%.
 Veeri said that the Saffron production during 1997 was 40 tonnes spread over 5400 hectares. The production in 2010-11 has declined to just 6 tonnes and land under saffron cultivation has shrunk to 3000 Ha only.
 He said 1100 kanals of saffron land was taken up for construction of para military headquarter in Latipora in Oct-Nov last year, 890 kanals of land was handed over to Highway authority for road widening, 2 dozen industrial units, cement factories where allowed on the saffron land, 15 cement factors are established without pollution control board permission, he added.
 Later, on the assurance of the Minister, the member withdraws the bill.

Lastupdate on : Thu, 15 Mar 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 15 Mar 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 16 Mar 2012 00:00:00 IST