Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 30: Hundreds of people today came on roads at Bathindi area to protest against the ongoing anti-encroachment drive of Jammu and Kashmir administration to retrieve illegally occupied State/Kahcharai land.
Amid heavy rains, around 400-500 people drawn from Sunjuwan, Bathindi, Narwal, Chatta, Malik Market and other adjoining areas today staged a protest in Sunjwan-Bathindi on the city outskirts as the authorities have served public notices to violators in the area and ordered them to remove illegal constructions within seven days.
Carrying Tricolours, the protesters, including men, women and children, poured onto the main road and tried to march towards the Civil Secretariat against the eviction order. However, police managed to stop the march at Bathindi while concerned sub-divisional magistrate tried to persuade the protesters to disperse.
On the invitation of the sub-divisional magistrate, a delegation of protesting people met Deputy Commissioner Jammu Avny Lavasa who assured them that no building, residential or commercial structure constructed over a small piece of land would be demolished.
Meanwhile, the protesting people said the eviction notices had taken away their peace of mind. “We have built our dwellings after investing our life’s earnings to provide shelter to our children. What will happen to us if Government destroy our homes?,” he said, adding, they have been holding the land for over 70 years and instead of regularizing the area, the administration is serving them notices.
Later, BJP Rajya Sabha MP Gulam Ali Khatana also spoke to the protesters and assured them that he would take up their grievance with the Lt Governor and the Centre.
People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader Varinder Singh Sonu and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Rajesh Gupta joined the protesters and launched a scathing attack on the BJP for the “anti-people” drive. “This is not a political issue but a humanitarian one. All political parties are standing with the protesters as their concerns are genuine,” Sonu said.
Rajesh Gupta accused the administration of harassing and persecuting the downtrodden on the pretext of removing encroachments and retrieving state and forest land. “The BJP government is pro-rich and anti-poor. It will pay a heavy price for its sins in the days to come,” Gupta said.
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