Prof S K Bhalla
The eviction drive launched by the LG’s administration with much fanfare vide circular No 02-jk (Rev) of 2023 dated 9/1/23 in the wake of landmark judgement of Jammu and Kashmir High Court in Roshni Scam seems to be slowly drifting towards more of politicking than desired substantial results. Instead of implementing the rule of law in its true spirit, the whole eviction drive has been reduced to rich and poor land grabbers. Indeed a highly disgusting state of affairs.
By this time, there is nothing in public domain which substantiates repeated tall claims of government in media regarding retrieval of prime land worth several crores from the clutches of VVIP land grabbers whose names are regularly doing the rounds in media. In fact, the whole anti encroachment drive is sadly being given a communal color by painting a particular region and community in a bad light ignoring the factual data of land encroachments.
As per reliable data, the land under encroachment in Kashmir division has been pegged at 571210 kanals while the area under possession of land grabbers in the Jammu division comes to 1602143 kanals.
Strange enough, the incredible hired protestors are deliberately playing the role of spoilsport by misrepresenting the true and factual position of encroached land with an ulterior motive to instigate one region against other besides communities on communal lines. A dangerous agenda of communal forces must be thwarted at all costs and these evil eyed street urchins must be exposed and roped in.
There is no denying the fact that as compared to majority community in J&K, the minorities are major beneficiaries of Roshni Scam. But, the elements inimical to the well being of our country are hell bent to project only one particular community and area like Bhathindi and Sunjawan as villian of the piece. No body is talking about the VVIP encroachers belonging to the Jammu region who sold hundreds kanals of state lands in Janipur, Paloura , Birpur, KotBhalwal to bolster their finances and establishment of residential cluster on communal lines. It is a Shakespearean tragedy wherein we find many glib tongued villains who are actually wolves in sheep clothing.
Twelve precious days have lapsed but todate there is not even a single identified VVIP structure on encroached land that has been razed to the ground. This points towards credibility gap between words and actions of administration.
Now, what the magic wand does the administration has in next 10 days minus the photo shoot sessions underway in much hyped anti encroachment drive on state/kaacharai and forest land.
(The author of this article is a retired Principal of HED as also original applicant in Roshni Scam and view expressed by him are his own)