By Afnan Habib / Two Circles
SRINAGAR (JAMMU & KASHMIR) — Widespread anxiety is prevailing in Jammu and Kashmir amid the ongoing land retrieval drive launched by the administration, despite verbal assurances that farmers and impoverished people having houses or stores on very small areas of state land and ‘Kahcharie’ (grazing land) will not be evicted.
Authorities have stated that the land recovery campaign will exclusively target influential individuals, politicians, and businesses who have illegally taken possession of “state land.” However, many believe that under the guise of land recovery, the administration is humiliating and targeting ordinary poor people.
“While authorities claim that the demolition drive won’t impact the poor, the reality on the ground is quite different. Poor people are being targeted. The administration must ensure that shopkeepers, if evicted, must also be rehabilitated,” Fayaz Ahmad Bhat, a shopkeeper from the Ganderbal district, told TwoCircles.net.
After several shops were demolished in the Padshahi Bagh and Mehjoor Nagar area of Srinagar, the distraught locals appealed to the Lieutenant General to spare the poor from eviction.
Stone pelting in Jammu over anti-encroachment drive
On Saturday, people resorted to minor stone-pelting and protests during an anti-encroachment drive at Malik Market in Jammu.
The protesters gathered around a commercial structure in Malik Market when it was being dismantled by four earthmovers in presence of civil administration, and a strong contingent of police.
As JCBs were busy in dismantling the building’s stairs and outer side, the people who had gathered there from the neighbouring residential colonies protested against the drive.
Police on Monday said that five people were arrested and four detained in connection with stone pelting during an anti-encroachment drive here on Saturday.
Three policemen were injured in the stone pelting that took place on Saturday during the drive to demolish a vehicle showroom built on encroached land in Malik Market in Narwal bypass area.
The owner of the showroom, Sajad Ahmed Beigh, is among those arrested, according to police.
“We have arrested five people and detained four others in connection with stone pelting that took place during an anti-encroachment drive here,” a senior police officer told PTI.
This story was originally published in twocircles.net. Read the full story here