SRINAGAR — Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said on Friday that he was not aware of the demolition drive carried out by the Jammu Development Authority (JDA) during which the house of a journalist was demolished.
Asked about the selective demolition of the house of the local journalist in Jammu, the Chief Minister said, “It was not brought to our attention that they were going to do this, nor were we consulted.”
Claiming that officers carrying out these demolitions are posted by Raj Bhawan, he said, “They have not taken the minister concerned into confidence. This is a large conspiracy to defame and humiliate the elected government.”
“Let the JDA CEO publish the list in tomorrow’s newspapers. Let the JDA publish the names of the encroachers in Jammu, then we will see who is there,” he said.
“But selectively targeting someone on the basis of religion or the area here, there is nothing other than a political conspiracy in it,” the Chief Minister said.
In her reaction to the demolition of the house of the local journalist in Narwal area of Jammu by the JDA, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president and former chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti said on X, “These aren’t the homes of helpless Muslim families in UP or elsewhere where targeting minorities has become the norm. This is Jammu and Kashmir where Arfaz, a journalist who built a modest home 40 years ago on 3 marlas of land saw it being crushed to rubble in seconds.”
“The NC government dismissed the PDP’s anti-bulldozer bill by branding these residents as land grabbers. Today, the brutal consequences of that decision are for all to see,” she posted.
The JDA has been carrying out a demolition drive against structures illegally built on government land.
However, it was not immediately known whether or not the house belonging to a local journalist, which was demolished, existed on government land.
The anti-encroachment drive was carried out on a large scale in Jammu city two years back, but the same was halted after resentment grew against the drive among poor families whose dwellings existed on very small pieces of land occupied by them for more than 50 years.
Demands have been growing that such extremely poor families should not be uprooted, but instead the government should legally allot such pieces of land to the poor dwellers in Jammu city. –IANS
