Jammu: The CPI(M) has objected to the recent direction by authorities in Jammu and Kahmir to remove encroachment from government land, claiming it will render thousands of people homeless and also divest many of cultivation rights. The Left party demanded immediate withdrawal of the order and asked people to unitedly oppose it.
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.
"There is deep concern over the government's move of divesting the people of the land registered under various titles in revenue records across Jammu and Kashmir. This is administration-sponsored land grabbing", CPI(M) leader Mohamad Yousuf Tarigami told reporters here.
He alleged that the administration is "totally blind towards the destruction of the livelihood of the rural poor". The CPI(M) leader said that it is unfortunate that the government has mobilised all its machinery to "dispossess the poor and excluded of the land registered as Kahchairi, Shamilat and so on".
"The people who are living off this land have found themselves in a bind after the government's recent order", Tarigami said. In the name of retrieving the "state land", the government is making desperate attempts to pauperise the people by snatching their land and creating private land banks, he alleged.
"The move is not only bound to render thousands of people without a roof on their heads, but also divest many of cultivation rights, he said. The government, he alleged, is trying to divert attention from pressing issues like unemployment. (PTI)
