Excelsior Correspondent
UDHAMPUR, Apr 17: Coming down heavily on the Govt for harassing the poor and marginalized sections of society in the name of encroachments, former minister Harsh Dev Singh today called upon the ex-ministers, MLAs and bureaucrats to come clean on the issue before initiating eviction proceedings against the poor, hapless, un-influential villagers, nomads and other homeless people.
He said that selective action against poor, indigent and homeless people in the name of illegal encroachments to the exclusion of privileged classes was not only reprehensible but amounted to a sin of the highest order.
He was speaking at public meetings organized during his two day tour in villages Bharnara, Battal and Khoon of tehsil Majalta. He also inaugurated Mechanical workshop opened by educated unemployed youth Jaswinder Singh and others.
Alleging state terror let loose in district Udhampur against the poor people especially by the Forest Department and refusal to allow construction of footpaths, bridle paths besides repairs of houses constructed years and decades back, Singh said that the very same officers were allowing open loot of forest resources to powerful politicians and other privileged people.
He claimed that the complaints of huge deodar wood smuggled by the privileged classes and politicians from forests for use in their bungalows had failed to elicit any response despite reliable evidence having been produced before the concerned authorities. Similarly, Forest lands costing millions had been illegally usurped by influential people in Udhampur, Ramnagar, Majalta, Ghordi with the department officers refusing to take action against the culprits.
And while the Forest Department in District Udhampur was reportedly colluding with the smugglers of forests wealth, it was harassing the poor uninfluential, Dalit and ST families. He said that some corrupt forest officials had wrongfully stopped the construction of several houses of poor people in Ghordi, Basantgarh, Chenani Blocks by falsely claiming that the lands in question fell within the Forest area.
He said huge state lands and Forest lands encroached by Ex-Ministers, MLAs etc had failed to invite the due attention of vigilante organizations and other govt agencies thus promoting a culture of patronized corruption in the UT.
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