Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Jan 26: Former Chief Minister and president People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Mehbooba Mufti has termed the Governor administration’s order of revoking zero stamp duty for women as “undemocratic”, stating that the decision taken by an elected Government in the State cannot be scarped by the present dispensation.
“There has to be a limit to how far the Governor’s administration can go . It needs to draw a line for its actions,” Mehbooba said in a statement issued here.
Excelsior had exclusively reported that the Governor’s administration has reversed the decision taken by previous PDP-BJP Government headed by Mehbooba to exempt stamp duty on registration of land on the name of women.
Mehbooba said that her Government abolished stamp duty on the sale of property registered in the name of females in the State with an objective to empower women and to improve their social status.
She said that the asset ownership in the State is largely dominated by men and there are only 23 percent women having land ownership while as mere 33 percent women in JK owned a house.
However, Mehbooba said, soon after the stamp duty for women was scrapped by her Government last year, properties in thousands were registered in the name of women.
“The decision had come in praise at the national as well as at the international levels as it sought to empower women in the real sense by making them stakeholders in real estate and family property. The revocation of this order by the Governor’s administration makes no sense at all. I demand that the earlier order should be immediately restored,” Mehbooba said.
The former Chief Minister added that women in Jammu and Kashmir have been victims of conflict since decades and the measure taken for their economic and social boost should not have been revoked in such ruthless way by the present administration. She added that the Governor rule is a transitory arrangement and the present dispensation should avoid disrupting the existing laws and procedures in the State.
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