J&K minister orders probe into 'anti-people' bulldozer drive in Jammu, seeks action against police

📌 Summary:

• J&K Forest Minister Javed Ahmed Rana ordered a probe into a demolition drive by the forest department near Mahamaya forests on the outskirts of Jammu, calling it "inhuman, anti-people and against law"

• He also asked Lieutenant-Governor Manoj Sinha to act against police personnel for "excesses" during the drive, in which the forest department, assisted by police, demolished 30-40 structures (including pucca houses) and claimed to have retrieved nearly 60 kanals of "prime forest land"

• The minister disputed that it was forest land, saying it lay outside the barbed-wire fencing and that the tribals occupying it had lived there for 40 years and were reflected in revenue records; many had migrated to Jammu during peak militancy

• Significantly, the forest department falls under the elected Omar Abdullah government — so the episode signals a rift between the elected government and the LG-led UT administration/bureaucracy

• The Omar Abdullah government has frequently accused the LG-led administration of interfering in governance, often citing this while demanding the restoration of statehood; the drive also drew political protest, with Congress leaders visiting the site

🎯 UPSC Relevance: GS2 — the friction between an elected government and a Lieutenant-Governor in a Union Territory, the J&K statehood-restoration debate, due process in demolition ("bulldozer") drives, and questions of land rights of long-settled tribal occupants.

🔑 Key Term: Lieutenant-Governor (LG) — the Union government's appointed administrator of a Union Territory; in J&K, the division of powers between the LG and the elected government has been a recurring source of governance friction.