Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Dec 27: Apni Party president Syed Mohd Altaf Bukhari today said that efforts that aim at a holistic development and job creation in Jammu and Kashmir are welcome but not at the cost of domicile laws that safeguard land and employment rights of its permanent residents.
Reacting to the Jammu and Kashmir Real Estate Summit (2021) that was held in Jammu organized by the Union Ministry for Housing and Urban Affairs and the J&K administration, Bukhari said that Apni Party will never allow any such move that undermines the rights of the People of Jammu and Kashmir.
“Our party will always welcome any efforts that will foster progress and prosperity in Jammu and Kashmir. But at the same time we are pledged to resist any plans that will do away with the exclusive rights of the people on their land and jobs,” he remarked.
Taking a strong exception to the controversial agenda of the Jammu Summit in which the term ‘permanent resident of the State’ has been omitted from J&K Development Act, Bukhari said that the exclusion of this legal guarantee is totally unacceptable to the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
“Apni Party wants to make it crystal clear that we will always resist any such proceedings that are against the Domicile Law in J&K,” he said, adding that Jammu and Kashmir is in dire need of infrastructural development but the same should revolve around its peoples’ identity, demography and their special rights under law.
Bukhari said the Jammu Summit seems to be a follow up to the recent attempts that were aimed at change in land use laws allowing re-classifying of agricultural land. “We want to caution the J&K Government to desist from fiddling with the character and demography of Jammu and Kashmir,” he observed.
Apni Party president said that though the development in Jammu and Kashmir is of utmost importance primarily for job creation; the government should ensure that the people of this land are not used merely as a labour class to move the wheels of the country’s private sector.
“At a time when the unemployment rate of J&K is over 21% as compared to the national average of 7.8 per cent, the Government of India must address this burning issue by creating more job opportunities rather than focusing on the sale of non agricultural land to non domiciles,” Bukhari remarked.
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