Jammu, Jan 15: Coming down heavily on the Government for harassing the poor and marginalized sections of society on the pretext of encroachments and retrieval of state and forest lands from them, former minister and senior AAP leader Harsh Dev Singh called upon the administration to come clean on the issue of encroachments by ex-ministers, MLAs and bureaucrats before initiating eviction proceedings against the poor, hapless villagers, nomads and other homeless people.
Addressing a press conference in Udhampur in wake of recent land order issued by the government, he said that selective action against poor, indigent and homeless people in the name of illegal encroachments to the exclusion of privileged classes was not only reprehensible but amounted to a sin of the highest order.
Accusing the LG administration of facilitating the encroachment of palatial mansions besides state lands, forest lands, JDA and Municipal lands by Ex-Ministers, MLAs and other saffron party leaders while evicting the poor and bulldozing their houses, Harsh Dev said that AAP would vociferously oppose the double standards of the present dispensation.
He said that several BJP leaders were reported to have usurped public lands and government properties besides having regularized state lands under Roshni scheme with no action initiated against them for reasons best known.
Describing Government moves as bizarre acts of highhandedness and political corruption, Singh urged upon the civil society to come forward to expose and oppose the authoritarian and dictatorial policies of the present corrupt regime.
Making a particular mention of some of the prime residential colonies and other concrete structures developed by the powerful politicians by encroachment and consequent destruction of Forests, AAP leader dared the government to retrieve the Forest land from the Ex-Ministers, MLAs, MLCs and other bureaucrats in areas like Bhatindi, Sunjwan, Chowadi, Nagrota, Bajalta, etc in the vicinity of Jammu city.
He said that several thousands of kanals of Forests land had been encroached by politicians and their cronies in the said areas mostly belonging to other districts who had raised huge residential and commercial complexes in collusion with the functionaries of Forest department with the Forest officers reportedly having provided even financial assistance for raising such constructions.
Asserting that politicians and bureaucrats were not above law, Singh sought appropriate action against all Ex-Ministers, legislators and bureaucrats who had encroached government lands in conformity with the principles of law and equity together with an enquiry against the officers who had allowed such constructions by tempering and damaging records.
