Mercifully, the Defence Ministry has announced hike in the rental for the land occupied by the armed forces in Jammu and Kashmir since 1989. A ministry spokesman announced that the increase in the rental would range between 2.1 to 5 times for various categories including orchards and agricultural land. The rates of rental for occupied land has been revised following the recommendations of an expert panel which had submitted its report on July 12,2007 calling for "realistic rents and compensation to the owners. Though the armed forces have been occupying huge tracts of land since 1989 the revised rates for rental would come into effect only from February 16,2008 and will remain valid for five years.

The official figures reveal that the Indian Army and other security agencies have been occupying 51,459 acres of private land besides 340 sq kms of government land since 1989 in Jammu and Kashmir. They are also in possession of 1572 buildings and 378 acres of private land in Kashmir valley alone. For years the armed forces were also occupying several schools and other educational institutions, industrial estates, sports stadiums, parks and other public and private property. The rental hike announced by the Centre hardly compensates the owners of the land and other property as the new rates are much lower than the market rates.

In view of the fact that most of the land under the occupation of the forces is either irrigated agricultural land or orchards the huge loss to the production of foodgrains and fruits can very well be imagined. There was indeed a strong case for the armed forces to vacate the irrigated agricultural land and orchards besides some of the public buildings still occupied by them.

The expert panel constituted by the Union government was asked to determine whether there was a need to relocate and re-configure the existing security forces, keeping in mind the security requirements of the state and also to review the application of AFSPA. The recommendations of the panel have been kept a closely guarded secret and even the Defence ministry spokesman while announcing the rental hike did not elaborate what the panel had recommended regarding the relocation and re-figuring of troops and revocation of AFSPA.

The silence on these issues makes it obvious that the Union government had turned down the demands in this regard. In fact even one of the working groups set up by the Prime Minister and comprising the representatives of all the mainstream political parties of the State had recommended revocation of AFSPA and vacation of private land and buildings by the security forces.