Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 24: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Harsh Dev Singh has submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while seeking the attention of the latter towards an eviction drive of the J&K Government that according to Singh, will throw the poor and marginalised farmers out from their lands and houses.
The memorandum submitted by Singh in the office of PM Modi reads: “The poor indigent farmers and other landless people of J&K are being evicted from their marginal land holdings by the Government through the coercive apparatus of the state.
“Not only have the eviction proceedings been launched to dispossess them of their small land holdings but notices have also been served upon them to dismantle the residential units constructed by them on such lands. The Government notification has not only triggered massive outrage among the poor people but has also led to UT wide protests with people taking to streets on a regular basis against the draconian order”.
It also reads, “the poor farmers in villages have been cultivating the impugned lands for several decades are dependent upon them for their livelihood. They cultivate the said lands to provide two square meals a day for their respective families. Evicting them from the said lands will therefore result in loss of livelihood and ultimately starvation.”
“We are a welfare state as enshrined in the DPSP and the Government is duty bound to protect the livelihood of its subjects. Moreover the right to livelihood is a fundamental right as enshrined in the Constitution and snatching the same would be the greatest injustice with the people besides being in violation of the Constitutional guarantees,” the AAP leader’s memo submitted to the PM read.
In the memo, Harsh further said that the anti-encroachment drive was meant to be initiated against the land mafia and other influential land grabbers but not the poor people.
“It is disturbing however that the influential and powerful people are being protected and sheltered by the Government with the helmsman directing the ire against the indigent farmers and other landless people.
“Several ex-Ministers and MLAs who have encroached lands worth several crores by using their power and authority continue to enjoy the patronage of the higher ups in the system thereby providing the most glaring example of misrule and patronised corruption besides of the anti-poor and anti-farmer policies of the J&K Government,” it said.
In view of the same, Harsh Dev Singh requested the PM Narendra Modi to intervene and save the poor farmers of J&K from starvation while enforcing strict penal action against the encroacher former Ministers and MLAs.
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