Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 1: Strongly condemning the Government for issuing the recent notification prescribing conditions for construction of houses, shops and other buildings in rural areas, the NPP activists, led by Harsh Dev Singh- Chairman JKNPP and former Minister, held a protest near Press Club Jammu, here today.
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Speaking on the occasion, Harsh Dev accused the Government of harassing and exploiting the rural folk by imposing draconian laws on them. He said that the Govt had not only created complications for the village folk in the construction of residential houses, shops etc but had further created new and additional channels of corruption. He said that it was a bizarre proposition to make permission from Revenue and Rural Deptt mandatory before construction of houses by people on their own land and with their own money.
Moreover, he added, it was not an easy task for poor, non-influential farmers to obtain permission from so many offices with not so unenviable reputation. “The construction of shops in rural areas under the new laws is almost impossible in view of the involvement of SDM, Tehsildar, BDO, Town Planner, Sarpanch and others in the prescribed process,” he said.
Describing the new law as an obnoxious piece of superimposed legislation, Mr Singh demanded its immediate roll back.
Accusing the Govt of harassing the people inhabiting the rural areas, Mr Singh said earlier it had removed the Girdawaries of thousands of poor ruralites from Revenue records pertaining to lands that were in their possession since decades. “Such misadventure on the part of Revenue authorities had already sparked massive outrage in the rural areas as the people were dependent on marginal lands in such areas for their survival and livelihood. And now imposing restrictions regarding construction purposes even on their proprietary lands has turned the heat into a furnace with the village people seething with rage against Govt’s insensitive moves,” said Harsh.
Prominent among those, who spoke on the occasion, included Rajesh Padgotra, Parshotam Parihar, Surinder Chouhan, Khajoor Singh, Mohinder Singh, Vishab Singh, Parladh Singh, Kulbir Sambyal, Rampaul Sharma, Ravinder Jamwal, Shankaar Singh, Rashpaul Singh, Maan Singh, Darshan Singh, Rakesh Verma, Tony Sharma, Gurjeet Singh and Vijay Singh.
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