Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 31: A group of 25 former bureaucrats, police officers, technocrats, doctors, army veterans and businessmen formed an online civil society group under the name and style of “Citizens’ Forum for Public Concerns (CFPC)’ and discussed various public issues including new land laws.
The Group seeks to discuss apolitically various public issues including good governance and came up with some recommendations that would be sent to the Government for consideration, besides bringing these to public domain. The Group was headed by J S Sudan with K B Jandial as its coordinator.
In its first webinar, the Group discussed the recently introduced land laws and scrapping of the earlier State Subject regime. Feeling that timing of these changes are not appropriate, it was however felt that new land regime was a natural corollary of abrogation of Article 35A & Article 370 and once discriminatory law was scrapped it was natural that any Indian citizen can come and buy property in J&K.
“In this regime, there should be no room for any fear on allowing anybody to buy private land as is being done elsewhere in the country. The new law does not take away anybody’s land forcefully and the property holders are free to take their own decisions. Moreover, there is adequate restriction on sale of agricultural land and grazing land,” the Group observed.
The Group members while welcoming the legal provision for carving out “strategic area”, opined that it was the critical need in the sensitive border UT that has been grappling with Pak sponsored militancy for the last three decades. Similar provisions to focus industrial development would help in creating job opportunities, it added.
It expressed confidence that the UT Govt would soon come with relevant Rules for implementation of these changes and three new laws extended to J&K including Real Estate Act, 2016 & Securitization & Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security, 2002.
Those who expressed their views include former CVC Kuldeep Khoda, Member of J&K Commission for Backward Classes J S Sudan, K B Jandial, Dr Rajinder Singh, former IGP, Prem Gupta and B B Magotra.
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