Shopian, Jan 27: As part of the government’s eviction drive, a shopping complex belonging to a former minister was demolished while large tracts of encroached land were retrieved in south Kashmir’s Shopian district on Friday.
Tehsildar Shopian Fida Muhammad Bhat told Greater Kashmir that the shopping complex was erected on the state land.
He said that the complex belonged to former Social Welfare minister Ghulam Hassan Khan.
Khan was a minister during Mufti Muhammad Sayeed-led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-Congress coalition government.
Another official said that a total of 343 kanal of State and Kahchirai land was retrieved in the district.
According to the official, 25 kanals and 12 marlas of land were retrieved in tehsil Zaipora, 85 kanal in Chitragam, 105 kanal and 5 marlas on Barbugh, 55 kanal and 13 marlas in Hermain, 28 kanal in Keegan and 43 kanal and 3 marlas in Kellar tehsil of the district.
Meanwhile, netizens hailed the action of the government saying that it was for the first time that action was being taken against the rich and powerful.
Javed Ahmad, a resident of Magam, posted on Facebook, “This is called Karma. As you sow, so shall you reap.”
Another netizen, Muhammad Hussain of Zadibal area of Srinagar downtown tweeted, “The NC, PDP, and Congress are getting the taste of their own medicine. They must realise what they did to people. Life is a big leveler.”
Yet another netizen, Beenish Ali from Chadoora posting on Facebook, “The previous governments had broken all records of nepotism with a bank once recruiting hundreds of employees from only one constituency of a NC leader while playing with the career of thousands of deserving aspirants and taking the contract for WLL phones of that particular NC leader’s son when the bank already had landline phones.”
The number of netizens were seen praising the government for its policy of “carrot and stick” with carrot for common people and stick for dealing with the rich and powerful.