Srinagar: The People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration, an amalgam of various mainstream parties in Jammu and Kashmir including the National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Tuesday condemned the amendments to land laws to allow people from outside the Union Territory to buy land there, and pledged to fight it on all fronts.
Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party president Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari also reiterated his party's position on the restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir along with comprehensive domicile rights on land and jobs for its residents and said it would take up its reservations before the top leadership in the country after going through the notification.
In a gazette notification, the Centre has omitted the phrase "permanent resident of the state" from Section 17 of the Jammu and Kashmir Development Act that deals with disposal of the land in the union territory, paving the way for people from outside Jammu and Kashmir to buy land in JK and Ladakh, over a year after the nullification of Articles 370 and 35A of the Constitution.
Reacting to the development, the National Conference said the latest move by the Centre has put up "Jammu and Kashmir on sale".
NC vice president Omar Abdullah slammed the new land laws notified by the government for JK and Ladakh and said the newly introduced JK Development Act, which has come into force with immediate effect, was "hostile to the interests of the people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh".
He said that with these new laws, "tokenism of the domicile certificate has been done away with as purchasing non-agricultural land has been made easier. These new laws are unacceptable to people of JK and Ladakh."
Also read:NC leader Omar Abdullah slams new land law in JK
He accused the BJP of indulging in the opportunistic politics and that the issuance of the amended land rules notification smacks of its cheap politics and deceit.
"Interestingly the Centre waited till the elections to LAHDC had concluded and the BJP had won a majority before putting Ladakh also up for sale. This is what Ladakhis got for trusting the assurances of the BJP," he said.
"The new laws are a consequence of the measures undertaken by the GOI on 5th of August without democratic bearings and much to the resentment and anger of the region's populace. The measure reflects the wanton breach of trust of the people of JK by a dispensation which is brewing with abhorrence for the diversity of the country and the democracy.
"The measures are also part of a larger design aimed to destroy the local, distinctive cultural identity of Kashmir thereby giving a ditch to the successive promises made by the successive central governments from time to time," he said, adding that such measures only reveal that it is not the people's aspirations which matters to the ruling dispensation in New Delhi, it is rather the land which they want to hold on and are interested in.