Stop eviction drive or face consequences: Kundal

RAMGARH: Hundreds of Aam Aadmi Party workers today staged protest against the continuation of eviction drive in the state, demanding that the administration should not evict poor people who have a small piece of land with them.

In this context, hundreds of AAP workers under the chairmanship of Yashpal Kundal, Chairman ST, SC OBC Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Jammu and Kashmir and former minister assembled in front of the office of Tehsildar Ramgarh and staged protest against the government, terming the order as draconian just to harass the general public. Later the protesters headed by Yashpal Kundal submitted a memorandum to Lt Governor Manoj Sinha through Tehsildar Ramgarh.

Talking to media persons, Kundal condemned the Government for attempting to forcibly dislocate a large section of people settled in Jammu and Kashmir by issuing a gagging order in the name of encroachments. He asserted that all the occupants of Ramgarh have small land holdings and have also constructed their houses on the same. Moreover, the residents of Ramgarh migrated to their present abode several decades ago and have been victims of abnormal situations due to their geographical placement on the map of India.

Kundal asked the administration to exempt people of Ramgarh, who have small land holdings; small business establishments and small houses, from the eviction drive. Moreover, people who have been cultivating their lands from the last sixty years in Ramgarh, should not face the brutal axe of eviction, as these are poor people who are in a tumultuous state of affairs, he added. He said that the people of Ramgarh belong to the downtrodden and the underprivileged class and saving their basic human rights should be the utmost priority of the government.

The former Minister also urged people of J&K to support Aam Aadmi Party to fight together against the “wrong” policies of the BJP-led Union government. He said people of Jammu and Kashmir had witnessed the worst due to the wrong policies adopted by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at New Delhi. He said that the performance of the BJP Government in the last 8 years has been poor on all fronts. “Inflation has skyrocketed, because of which the lives of the common man have been seriously impacted and unemployment rate is highest ever,” he added.

Kundal urged the administration to exempt the people of Ramgarh during the ongoing eviction drive. He appealed to the people of different shades of the society to come under the umbrella of Aam Aadmi Party in order to strengthen the social and secular fabric of Jammu and Kashmir and ensure the overall development of each and every section of the society.