Srinagar, Feb 8: Chairman Peoples’ Conference, Sajad Lone Wednesday came down heavily on Lakes and Waterways Development Authority accusing the LAWDA of subjecting “indigenous inhabitants of the green belt to life of deprivation, harassment and misery.”
 “Land worth billions has been rendered economically barren for the original, indigenous inhabitants of the peripheries of Dal Lake that come under the Green Belt laws. The inhabitants of these areas reel under suppressive regulations under the fig-leaf of conservation,” Lone said in  a party handout.
 “While 5-Star hotels and golf courses spread on hundreds of acres of land can come up, the indigenous inhabitants of the area are not allowed to add even new windowpanes to their existing, fast dilapidating homes,” he said.
 “All around the world, the indigenous people of specific areas are given Indigenous Land Rights to safeguard their cultural and economic rights, to ensure their dignified survival, their prosperity and welfare. Albeit, in Kashmir, the indigenous inhabitants of the Green Belt area have been made to suffer under incomplete, isolated and flawed laws and regulations.
 “The LAWDA has ceased to be a development authority – a role it was ordained to perform – and has instead become a repressive and corrupt force mirroring the Task Force and SOG,” Lone said.
 “Corruption in LAWDA is rampant and mind-boggling as those with money are allowed to make mansions and hotels while as the original inhabitants of the area are crucified on the alleged pretext of laws and regulations.”
 The UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) through its Working Group on Indigenous Populations (WGIP) passed the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in September 2007, he said.
 “The declaration,” as per Lone, “sets an important standard for the treatment of indigenous people that will undoubtedly be a significant tool towards eliminating human rights violations against indigenous peoples and assisting them in combating discrimination and marginalization”.
 “Recently President Obama also signed the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Why then are the Indigenous Inhabitants of the Green Belt Area in Srinagar bereft of such national and international practices and laws?”
 Hinting towards National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party, he said: “Successive governments and the twin traditional mainstream parties have exploited the abject conditions of the Indigenous inhabitants of the Green Belt." He stated that the Peoples’ Conference would soon launch “a comprehensive mass movement in the area to seek justice for the Indigenous Inhabitants and knock all legal doors to challenge the dichotomist laws and regulations that have stunted the prosperity and dignified survival of these inhabitants.”

Lastupdate on : Wed, 8 Feb 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 8 Feb 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 9 Feb 2012 00:00:00 IST