Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 5: Former Minister Harsh Dev Singh was briefly detained while holding a protest outside LG House Jammu against the forcible eviction of ‘poor and small farmers’ from their marginal land holdings.
He was arrested and detained in Ambphalla Police Post Jammu when he refused to end his dharna on the very gate of Raj Bhawan, Jammu. He was sitting alone with the National Flag in front of the LG House when two others namely Parshotam Parihar and Sham Lal Choudhary joined him to express their solidarity with the protesting Ex-Minister. The three were detained and later released in the evening.
Protesting outside LG House, Harsh Dev said that the encroacher BJP leaders were enjoying the patronage of the helmsmen while the poor and indigent farmers were bearing the brunt of the Govt’s draconian move. “The LG had assured that the poor would not be evicted but the District and Tehsil administration are dispossessing only the poor and un-influential while leaving the rich and powerful untouched,” he said.
Accusing the LG administration of facilitating the encroachment of palatial mansions besides state lands, forest lands, JDA and Municipal lands by Ex-Ministers, MLAs and other saffron party leaders, Harsh Dev said that the double standards of the present dispensation would be vociferously opposed. He said that several BJP leaders were reported to have usurped public lands and Govt properties besides having regularized state lands under Roshni scheme with no action initiated against them for reasons best known.
Singh urged upon the civil society to come forward to expose and oppose the authoritarian and dictatorial policies of the present corrupt regime. Asserting that politicians and bureaucrats were not above law, Singh sought appropriate action against all Ex-Ministers, legislators and bureaucrats who had encroached Govt lands in conformity with the principles of law and equity together with an enquiry against the officers who had allowed such constructions by tempering and damaging records.
Describing the selective action of Govt against poor and destitute people as ‘cowardice’, besides “political corruption” of the highest order, Singh dared the Govt to ensure vacation of land under illegal possession of land mafia and influential people as had been assured by the Govt itself in Assembly and in courts.
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