Ghulam Nabi Azad: Raj Bhavan Should Issue A Formal Order To Protect The Poor From The J&K Anti-Encroachment Drive

SRINAGAR, Feb 4: The Democratic Azad Party (DAP) leader, Ghulam Nabi Azad, asked on Saturday that the Raj Bhavan issue a formal order protecting the underprivileged during the current anti-encroachment operation.

“I met with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and asked him to stop evicting impoverished people from their homes and poor shopkeepers from their businesses, both of which provide them with a means of subsistence. The J-K LG has also stated that the underprivileged will be spared. In response to their guarantees, we have decided to postpone our protest, Azad remarked in a speech to his party’s supporters in Sonwar.

Welcoming the statement by J-K LG, Azad said it cannot be a policy of any government to make its people homeless.

“Most of these people are poor. There are 50-60 lakh households, which is half of our population. It cannot be a policy of any government to make people homeless,” the former Congress general secretary said.
He said conflicting statements by the J-K administration have created confusion, and therefore the Raj Bhavan should issue a formal order making it clear that poor people and small shopkeepers will not be evicted.

Thousands of people in Mumbai and Delhi encroach State land and the government provides them all facilities like electricity and water, he said.
Political parties and governments promise them regularisation during elections and several of these colonies have been regularised too, then why not in J-K, the former J-K chief minister said.
The DAP chairman said his party was not in favour of the illegal occupation of government land by rich and influential people.

But there should not pick and choose while dealing with the big fishes, he said. Asked about a reported J-K chief secretary directive to officers to check if anybody making negative statements on the anti-encroachment drive has himself or herself encroached upon government land, Azad said no one can be stopped from making any statements in a democracy.

Earlier, his party members took out a protest march from the party office at Sonwar and blocked the main road near Sonwar Chowk. They demanded a rollback of the eviction order. Formal Order Should Be Issued By Raj Bhavan To Spare Poor From Anti-Encroachment Drive In J&K