Srinagar, Jan 23: Reiterating that Apni Party’s key agenda is to safeguard the demographic identity of Jammu and Kashmir, the party President Altaf Bukhari on Monday assured that his party will fight tooth and nail to ensure people’s rights are protected in J&K.
Bukhari was addressing a jam-packed press conference at the party headquarters at M2 in Church Lane Srinagar flanked by the party stalwarts.
While talking about the government initiative for the removal of encroachments from the State land across the Union Territory (UT), Bukhari said, “Over the years, people have built their houses, shops, and other building structures on state, kahcharai land. I believe that it is not advisable to retrieve this land from their possession all of a sudden.”
“I am not saying that land grabbers who have occupied hundreds of kanals of land should be exonerated, but in the case of the common people who are mostly underprivileged should not be subjected to injustice on the land retrieval.” He added.
Apni Party President urged the government to provide property rights of the land to the tillers who have land under LB6 with them.
He said, “The government’s decision to allow the transfer of land that has been vested under Agrarian Act is a good step. Land in possession of the tillers under LB6 is a problem area. Such tenants need to be given the property rights. The land is in possession of the tenants for more than 60 years but without title.”
Bukhari said he has been assured that common people will not be made to suffer due to the government’s land retrieval initiative, yet some complaints are pouring in suggesting that even poor people are forced to leave their land in some areas.
He said, “When I recently met with the union Home Minister in New Delhi and the Lieutenant Governor (LG) in J&K, they both assured me that the move of retrieving the state land will not affect the common people.”
Taking a dig at the officials, Apni Party President said, “Unfortunately, in the land retrieval process some of the bureaucrats are trying to behave more loyal than the king. I would request these officials not to harass common people in the name of land retrieval.”
Bukhari assured that the Apni Party will stand by the common people and will ensure their rights are protected. He said, “We are from the people, and we will always stay with them through thick and thin. We know that certain things have happened that need to be fixed. I assure you that once we are mandated in the elections, we will make sure that all the matters pertaining to the state are solved through democratic means and as per the wishes of the people.”
