Samba, June 01, 2023(KNS):- Apni Party Provincial President Jammu, and Former Minister S. Manjit Singh has strongly resented the forcefully acquiring the possession of land from the innocent villagers in Samba for the widening, and Expressway Construction.
Addressing a monthly meeting of Apni Party leaders, and workers in Vijaypur, he said that there is a very strong resentment among the people in village Chak Manga Gujjran in Samba where the revenue authorities using the police force took over the possession of the land for NHAI from the poor families.
“These families were not consulted but they were misled by the administration by calling them to the direct headquarters for a meeting, but did not hold the same. Under the garb of the meeting with the villagers, their land was taken over even after protest by the women,” he said, citing strong resentment among the villagers in Samba’s various villages.
He said that the anger will burst in the shape of protests across the district for the injustice done with the people whose land was taken over and the compensation was accorded less and higher in some cases in the same areas having similar market value.
“Many people who had commercial value properties, and established businesses have lost their source of earning and these families of land owners were given very less in comparison to the market value of the land,” he said.
Highlighting the plight of the people in Samba, he said that “These people have also accused NHAI for discriminating with them as in some areas close to them were given appropriate compensation, but they were declined the same right,” he said.
He said that the villagers of Chak Manga Gujjran have claimed that they were allotted land in 1952 by the Govt but still they were not given any kind of compensation nor were they given a chance to represent themselves.
“Many villagers whose 200 kanals have been taken over by the authorities for terminal and other construction work for Expressway claimed that they were deceived by the authorities,” he said.
He said that the shops on the highway in Samba were also dismantled, and the land compensation to the Displaced Persons/Refugees of 1965 and 1971 was not given by the NHAI even as the Govt had assured them ownership rights on the custodian land.
“After displacing people from one place on the name of development, no plan has been made for their resettlement at an alternative place. There are many examples of shopkeepers whose shops were dismantled by the authorities but when they construct the shops at their own land away from the highway, the JDA jumps in, to harass the villagers/landowners/shopkeepers etc. The JDA must be pulled for unnecessarily harassing the people even in areas where they have no jurisdiction,” he said.
He demanded that the harassment must end and the LG Manoj Sinha should immediately get into the issue, demanding land compensation at par with the market value for the people whose land was taken over by NHAI.
Meanwhile, he said that development in the last nine years has stopped in Samba district and the worst examples are border villages in the district as they face continuous long hours, unscheduled power cuts, irregular drinking water supply, no canal water to the tail-end villages, unemployment, and underdevelopment.
He said that the authorities have failed to provide even basic amenities.
“The growing issues of the public can only be addressed if assembly elections are held in J&K. These elections should be held as early as possible and statehood should also be restored,” he said.
He said that the LG administration is incompetent in providing equitable development, ensuring employment to the educated youth etc.
“In all these nine years, J&K has gone to the stone age like situation with a model of governance implemented by the bureaucracy across Jammu and Kashmir. The Govt officers are not treating people well, and people have to line up in front of their offices. The public grievance redressal system seems to have collapsed,” he said while recalling the recent anti-encroachment drive where poor were displaced from their homes, and land.
Earlier, the Former Minister, S. Manjit Singh offered tributes to Shaheed Amatnath Bhagat Ji, who started a movement for reservation of marginalised sections of society, to ensure their educational, social, economic and political upliftment.(KNS)