Srinagar: All Parties Hurriyat Conference on Wednesday said that it expresses great anguish at the administrations another move to further scrap Jammu and Kashmir land laws and revoke the rights of local communities to cultivate state, community and evacuee land in order to facilitate the creation of private land banks and hand them over to outsiders to set up industries in JK.
This move will further disempower and pauperise locals, of both Jammu and Kashmir region especially the poorer segment, Hurriyat spokesman said in a statement.
“APHC said that people of Jammu and Kashmir are already at the receiving end since the revocation of 35A when Government of India notified that any Indian citizen can purchase non-agricultural land in the new Union Territory and subsequently further notified a new set of rules that allowed the change of title of agricultural land to non-agricultural on fulfilling conditions. After the Roshni land scam case, marginal farmers who got state land regularised under the Jammu & Kashmir State land Act, became the targets of the state, retrieving land from them,” the spokesman said.
The statement added that all these are attempts to accelerate and facilitate the settlement of outsiders in Jammu Kashmir in order to bring about demographic change in the composition of the state, while keeping the locals entangled in fighting for basic sustenance.
“APHC condemns this mindset. It said that these actions will only vitiate the atmosphere as the sense of insecurity and frustration among people of JK increases and they will naturally react .It once again asks the authorities to desist from such diktats and revoke these anti local laws,” the spokesman said.
APHC asks both the governments of India and Pakistan to come to the dialogue table and resolve the Kashmir conflict and give real peace a chance in the subcontinent. Once this issue is resolved the mistrust and insecurities that both countries have will cease and people of Jammu and Kashmir will also be spared the incessant assault on their identity and freedoms, reads the statement.
Pertinently, in a circular issued on January 9, Commissioner Secretary of the Revenue Department, Vijay Kumar Bidhuri, directed all deputy commissioners to ensure 100 per cent removal of encroachments from state land, including Roshni and Kahcharai, by the end of January.
Various politicians from JK have criticized the administration for its new order. Coming down heavily on the administration, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti said laws are made to “disempower”, “humiliate” and “punish” people in Jammu and Kashmir.
