Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 1: The Management Committee of Shrines and Temples in district Shopian has expressed grave concern over fresh incident of land grabbing in the district where land mafia has let a reign of terror and stopped the fencing of the Raghunath Temple land in Shopian Bazar near DC Office.
The Committee members and other displaced people from Shopian who staged a demonstration here today said that the same was done by the mafia at the instance of an influential person in the town who after mutating the revenue records with help of some revenue officials was creating hurdles in fencing of the temple land.
The Committee said that District Development Commissioner Shopian has accepted that 19 temples, shrines and dharamshallas have been damaged and encroached upon in district Shopian. It said the fencing work was taken in hand by the Committee after the due permission was sought from concerned DC and concerned officers of Municipal Committees Shopian who demarcated the land on spot measuring less than three kanals out of five kanals and 13 marlas existing in Revenue records. The local people have also confirmed that the said land belonged to Raghunath temple and they fully backed the Committee in fencing it to restore the temple.
The Committee warned the land grabbers and also its members lodged a protest in the town today. The Committee while expressing concern said on the one hand the Government was talking of rehabilitating the Pandits in Valley and on the other it was encouraging the land grabbers. The Committee has also sought immediate intervention of Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah asking him to issue directives to concerned officers to act tough against the land grabbers and restore the land to temple immediately.
Meanwhile KPC president Kundan Kashmiri has also expressed his dismay over the act of the land grabber who in connivance with some officers in Revenue Department has grabbed the land of the shrine and was harassing the members of the minority community who had started fencing the temple.
Kashmir said in case the authorities failed to act the migrants will be forced to launch agitation as majority of shrines land in Valley has been grabbed by land mafia.
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