Srinagar, Jan 23 (KNS): Apni Party president, Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari on Monday said that state land encroached from 100 to 150 years cannot be taken back with a single strike of pen. He however appealed to Lieutenant Governor J&K Manoj Sinha to intervene into the matter with a maximum humanitarian approach to deal with the situation.
“The state land encroached from 100 to 150 years cannot be retrieved with a single strike of pen. The Hon’ble Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha should intervene into the matter and opt maximum humanitarian behavior to deal with the situation”, Apni Party President, Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari as per KNS said while addressing a press conference here in Srinagar.
Bukhari said the government has started to retrieve stand land from encroachers and grabbers but the drive seems a deliberate attempt to make people suffer badly. “The ongoing state land eviction drive seems to make people suffer badly and harass them in the name of land laws. An impressing is being made that government is coming up with bulldozers to demolish the properties of common man”, Bukhari said.
While hitting hard to bureaucracy, Bukhari said “Our own bureaucrats try to be more loyal than king. But I want to make it clear today that it is not your right to harass common man. It is intolerable for us. We cannot hesitate even to name those officials involved in harassing common man if anti-people behavior not stopped forthwith”, he said.
Bukhari maintained that they won’t allow an inch of Jammu and Kashmir’s land to be provided to outsiders. He said that the drive to retrieve State and Kahcharai land from the land grabbers must exclude poor people. “Those grabbed a big chunk of state land should be dealt sternly but those belong to the downtrodden section of the society must be excluded from the drive”, Bukhari added.
To a query, the Apni Party President Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari said that our party whose core aim is to safeguard the interests of people of J&K, always raised voice on genuine issues since its inception. “Be it Article 370, 35(A), domicile, employment, land etc we always remained at the forefront to protect the identity of our people. We will never allow injustice to happen with our people”, he said.
“If any person has 100 kanals of land in possession and he used only 5 kanals for establishment of hotel or some other structure, so he or she should hand over the rest of the land or property to authorities genuinely. If government will provide the retrieved land to unemployed youth or establish an industries there, it will surely curb the rising unemployment in J&K”, Bukhari continued.
He said currently India is progressing and entire world in eying on its development but it doesn’t mean that J&K should be deprived from the progress. “We should accept this reality that we are part of India and we have all those rights that Constitution of the country grants to the citizens of other parts of the country”. (KNS)