New land law an insult to vision of Maharaja Hari Singh: Harshdev

Excelsior Correspondent
UDHAMPUR, Nov 1: Lambasting the BJP Govt for opening the jobs and lands of J&K to outsiders, NPP chairman Harshdev Singh said that it was an insult to the vision of the legendary ruler of erstwhile state Maharaja Hari Singh.
“Not only had the BJP regime dismantled the oldest Dogra State and demoted it as UT, but it had deprived its people of certain special privileges envisioned by the late Maharaja for the welfare of his subjects especially those pertaining to lands and jobs,” said Singh.
Addressing public meeting at Sundla in Majalta today, Singh said that the state subject law had been conceptualized by the late Maharaja as far back as in 1927 and operationalized in the entire State so as to provide protection to the lands and jobs of the residents of J&K which had unfortunately been abolished by an unconcerned regime at the centre. While the new domicile law allowed entry into Govt jobs in J&K for those outsiders who had spent a certain period of time in J&K, the new land laws had opened the entire J&K properties for sale with no PRC or even domicile law needed for the purpose, Singh said.
Reminding the BJP leadership of its loud sloganeering post Art 370 abrogation assuring protection of Jobs and lands of locals, Harshdev said that the gullible masses had been betrayed once again by the BJP. He said that promises to save the lands of Jobs of J&K people by enacting appropriate legislation on the subject had been repeatedly held out by not only the J&K BJP unit but the Central leadership of the Party as well. While some BJP leaders assured enacting suitable laws on the analogy of Himachal Pradesh to save the lands of people, other motor mouths of saffron brigade made tall pronouncements of providing constitutional safeguards in this context which all however proved a hoax, lamented Singh.
Seeking an employment package for the unemployed youth of J&K, the NPP leader sought the review of the newly enacted land laws.