STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Global Kashmiri Pandit Diaspora (GKPD) welcomed the moves of the Narendra Modi government to ensure equal and fair application of the right to property in Jammu and Kashmir.
“For over 70 years now, residents of Jammu and Kashmir have enjoyed the right to property across India, including even the ability to acquire land for non-residential and farming purposes. However, this right has never been made available to residents of other Indian states with respect to acquiring property for residential usage in J&K,” a statement said. Acquisition of land parcels for industrial and commercial usage had been made permissible and upheld by successive governments in the state including those led by PDP and NC, it added.
Given the needs for ensuring rapid, equitable development of J&K, the move to allow investors to acquire land for residential purposes is a logical extension of the policies of earlier, popularly elected governments of the state, a statement stated and added, “The misuse of the ‘domicile’ and ‘permanent resident’ clause as a political weapon to ensure the dominance of a separatist ideology has been at the core of the problems of J&K.”
The depraved and morally unconscionable practice of depriving those who have worked for the entire life in J&K from settling down in the state was the equivalent of ‘property apartheid’.
“We are glad that equality and non-discrimination is now the policy approach in the UT of J&K,” a statement said adding that GKPD applauded and congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Council of Ministers for the sagacity and wisdom of this move.