Srinagar: The Jammu & Kashmir government has failed to retrieve the 139 acres (1112 kanals) of land occupied by the Army at Tattoo Ground Srinagar even as bids were made during the current and former PDP-BJP stints to retrieve it by allotting an alternate site to the forces.
In 2015, former Chief Minister of J&K Mufti Sayeed had reached an agreement with the army for vacation of the Tattoo Ground situated in Batmaloo quarter of the city.
No progress has been made since the Civil Military Liaison Conference (CMLC) headed by Sayeed in 2015, decided on return of land at different places, including Tattoo Ground, to the State.
The inaction comes to fore amidst governments subsequent talks with Army on the vacation of Tattoo Ground, where a military cattle farm runs for many years now.
Tattoo ground is a contested piece of land with civil authorities claiming that some years ago they gave an alternate piece of land to the army, in lieu of the Tattoo ground, at Sharief Abad in Budgam district.
In 2015, during an agreement Army agreed to vacate the land and hand it over it to the government, which in return was supposed to provide an alternate site to the army at a mutually acceptable place within three months. Come 2017, there has hardly been any on-ground movement on the matter.
According to Army sources, Government had agreed to transfer 212 acres of land to Army in lieu of Tattoo ground but till now they had only transferred 112 acres of land in Sharifabad, Budgam.
Army has a separate wing which deals with the land records.
Govt had made proposal of 100 acres of land in Charkote, Kupwara but have not transferred it yet, we are waiting for the land, said an Army official wishing anonymity.
On 4 November, 2015, Mufti Sayeed, laid foundation of a Citizens Park at Tattoo Ground, a job entrusted to the Tourism Department. To it, army said that they would vacate part’ of the Ground for use by J&K Government in next three to six months. Not even an inch of land has so far been handed over.
In 2016, after the death of Mufti Sayeed, the current CM Mehbooba Mufti met PM Modi for handing over of Tattoo Ground land to the State Government but wiy=thout any success.
Srinagars Tattoo ground is just one chunk of the thousands of kanals of state land held by Army for decades now.
As per the recent Draft Master Plan (2015-2035), over 45,000 kanals of land is under use of defence and paramilitary establishments alone in Srinagar.
Secretary Tourism Department, M H Malik said that only 120 kanals of Tattoo ground land is under possession of the Tourism Department while rest is still under Army.
When KO tried to contact the authorities to know about the delay in transfer of land, they refused to comment.
Deputy Commissioner Srinagar, Farooq Ahmed Lone told Kashmir Observer that he had no information regarding the issue.
Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Baseer Ahmad Khan said that he would need some time to study the case.
Contacted a week later, he was still unable to offer an explanation.