The vacation of army land has always been a burning issue in Kashmir now with Prime Minister Narendra Modi approving a Jammu and Kashmir government’s proposal for vacating nearly 458 Kanal of land in army’s possession for expansion of Kashmir University campus in Anantnag is seen as a historic step.
In this regard, Highly-placed sources said the prime minister, after his return from the five-nation tour, had called a meeting on Kashmir during which he asked the Defence Ministry to hand over the ‘high ground’ in Anantnag to the state at the earliest so that the expansion plan of south campus of Kashmir University can be carried out.
It is worth mentioning out here that during the meeting, the prime minister said the Centre is committed to all-round improvement of education in the state, official sources said.
One cannot miss out the fact that the army had in-principle been agreeable to vacating the land for quite some time but a decision by its headquarters got delayed.
Pertinently, the land that is vacated s adjacent to south campus in Fatehgarh area near an army camp. It was being used by the army for landing helicopters despite the force having a similar facility at Khanabal, a few kilometres from there.
346.7 Kanals of land, which was earlier in the army’s possession, was transferred to the university in 2004.
Political watchers see this step of vacating army land for campus as historic.