Flood Compensation, Delay In Reservation Among Key Issues In Upcoming J&K Legislative Assembly Session

The lack of proper compensation for farmers affected by floods and the delay in rationalizing reservations are expected to be key issues in the upcoming Legislative Assembly session, which begins on October 23.

The opposition is likely to raise these issues and criticize the National Conference (NC) government, which is nearing the completion of its first year in office and has been accused of failing to fulfill its pre-election promises made in October 2024.

Other major concerns include delays in reducing job quotas for reserved categories and limited efforts to create employment opportunities for the youth in Jammu and Kashmir. Earlier, students protested against what they called a lopsided reservation policy, which left only 30% of jobs for open merit candidates.

The session will run for nine days, until October 31, and has been called to meet the legal requirement of holding two sittings within six months. Legislators say inadequate compensation for flood-affected people and slow progress on development projects will remain key focus areas for debate.

The National Conference has admitted that the poll promises couldn’t be kept, but has blamed this on the dual control in the administration, saying the maximum powers are being enjoyed by the Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha.

Awami Itihaad Party (AIP) MLA,  Sheikh Khursheed Ahmad, says that the rationalisation of reservations was one of the key promises of NC, and despite the government statement that a report has been finalised to increase the job percentage for candidates in the open merit category, no decision has been taken on the issue.  

Further, the MLA adds, the continuous detention of political leaders, including his brother and MP, Sheikh Abdul Rashid, would also be raised in the legislative assembly. “There is an assault which has been launched on the culture of Kashmir by giving supremacy to Hindi. We will try to fight all this by raising these issues in the legislative assembly,” he says.

The flood damage would remain a main concern for the MLAs from both the regions of Jammu as well as Kashmir. BJP’s Bhaderwah MLA, Daleep Singh Parihar, says that the heavy rains and cloudbursts caused massive damage to the private property and public infrastructure across Doda and Kishtwar districts, including Bhaderwah.

He, however, says that the compensation that has been granted by the government to over 700 households that suffered damages in the Bhaderwah constituency was of a few lakhs only, significantly less than the actual damages. He adds that the Jammu region has been particularly ignored on the developmental front by the NC-led government, which has also failed to keep most of the electoral promises, including providing permanent jobs to daily wage earners and 200 units of free electricity to people. “Where is the progress on the promises that the NC made? We can’t see anything on the ground,” he says.

In Kashmir, the flood damages and the closure of the Jammu-Srinagar national highway after landslides have left the farmers in distress. The losses to the agriculture and horticulture crops due to the floods are over Rs 1,000 crore. But the compensation amount that has been worked out by the authorities has been described as too little for the affected people.

People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) Tral MLA, Rafiq Ahmad Naik, says that the party has moved a legislation in the upcoming assembly session to prevent the eviction of people from their land, which they have been possessing for a long time, further adding that it would also highlight the issues faced by the farmers due to the floods. “The farmers have faced massive losses, and the government should ensure that they are properly compensated,” he says.

On Wednesday, PDP said that it has submitted the “The Jammu and Kashmir Land Rights and Regularisation Bill, 2025” to the Legislative Assembly to “regularise land holdings of individuals, families, and institutions who have been in continuous possession of land for over 30 years.”  The regularisation will secure ownership rights of people to prevent evictions and takeover of leased hotel properties in Kashmir.

For the fresh legislation, PDP has cited the Land Grant Rules, 2022, which have ended the renewal of old leases, putting dozens of hotels at risk of being auctioned.  The party said that some 60 hotels in Gulmarg have received takeover notices from the Gulmarg Development Authority (GDA).