Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 3: The Kashmiri Pandit Sabha (KPS) Jammu has taken serious notice of the reports emanating from the Valley about large scale land grabbing incidents and tampering of revenue records pertaining to the left over properties of the displaced Kashmiri Pandits who were forced to leave the Valley in the year 1990 and thereafter .
While the Union Territory Government and all its administrative arms are busy taking measures to handle the gigantic challenge posed by the Pandemic, the land mafia who have no qualms of conscience are busy grabbing the lands and properties of the displaced Pandits who haveno way of looking after these properties while they live thousands of miles away from Kashmir, a KPS president K K Khosa in a hand out issued here, today said.
He said this is happening right under the nose of the UT Government and that too even in the heart of the Summer Capital Srinagar which makes it all the more disconcerting and alarming. It also raises serious doubts about the competence and integrity of the officialdom which is charged with the responsibility of taking care of these assets till the exiled owners are in a position to return and re-possess them. The Sabha expressed its distress over the lackadaisical attitude of the UT administration especially in view of the fact that KPS has been consistently flagging this issue with the highest echelons of the UT as well as the Central Governments time and again through various memoranda. It is all the more depressing that such incidents have become more frequent notwithstanding the assurances given to our delegations by both G.C.Murmu and ManojSinha that the State would leave no stone unturned in ensuring that all such illegal encroachments would be got vacated and properties would be handed over to their rightful owners.
As against this, the alarm raised by no less a person than the Mayor of Srinagar, Junaid Azim Mattoo through his tweet yesterday about land grabbing incidents taking place in Bagh-e-Mehtab, Rawalpora and Soura have a totally different story to tell. “I make a fervent appeal to the Lt. Governor, ManojSinha, Union Home Minister, Amit Shah and the Prime Minister, NarendraModi to take immediate cognizance of the matter in case they are serious about resettling the community back in the Valley.
The other long standing demand of the Pandits which has been hanging fire for more than a decade for enactment of a law for protection of temples and shrines has been brushed under the carpet and it now seems that the issue of land grabbing of private properties of the displaced panditsis also being ignored either because of incompetence or sheer callousness or perhaps both on the part of the officialdom.
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