STATE TIMES NEWS
AKHNOOR: Opposing the move to establish Army firing range in Akhnoor, the residents of the erstwhile area on Monday protested under the leadership of Sham Lal Sharma Senior Vice President JKPCC and Ex-Minster Congress and blocked highway for four hours. The villagers said the proposal would be a threat to the lives of thousands of people and their property.
Sham lambasted BJP MLAs, MPs and ministers and said without their consent SRO 462 wouldn’t have been published, which clearly stated that any type of land either agricultural or non agricultural can be used by Army for firing range or other warfare purposes.
He termed the aforesaid SRO to be a mean of forced acquisition where the authorities can acquire agricultural land without considering the fact that how badly such an acquisition is affecting the land owner.
“This land acquisition is not at all ethical and is the result of a ‘Game Plan’ of BJP where not only BJP MLAs but BJP Cabinet Ministers are equally responsible in creating this ‘Do or Die’ situation for the people of Akhnoor”, he added.
Sham said BJP has backstabbed people of Akhnoor as the notification which was taken out was published in such a way that it could not attract much public attention and was intentionally done in order to escape any public outcry.
He further said that the people to whom the land in question belongs are poor and their livelihood depends on agricultural yield. He said that the concerned people are having very meager portion of land on which they are fully dependent. The people of Akhnoor have faced the brunt of all Indo Pak wars thus their present economic condition is very bad. Sham further said that not an inch of land will be allowed to acquire forcibly. In response to ordinance of Land Acquisition passed during Con
