National Conference on Saturday opposed the amendments cleared by J&K government to the Control of Building Operations Act-1988, and J&K Development Act-1970, saying the amendments will undermine the civil authority and turn the entire region into a “military establishment.”
The party spokesperson Imran Nabi Dar said that at a time when voices were being raised against poor implementation of Cantonment Act and construction rules across the country, the “headless” dispensation in J&K was proposing to put more land under the control of security forces at the pretext of smooth construction for their requirements in such proposed notified areas.
He said as per the statement of a former Chief Minister in the erstwhile Legislative Assembly in 2018, thousands of hectares of land in J&K were already under possession of security forces.
“…the strategic importance of J&K is not confined to certain areas; as such the entire region is strategically important. So by that analogy government will have a free hand to give as much land to the forces to be used by the later for any means, which the proposed amendment is totally ambiguous about,” he said.
He said in the years to come, many civilian chunks could overnight be converted into such proposed “strategic areas”.
“Such a notification can change a disposition of huge chunk of settlement over night; hamper their economic activities and other dynamics of day to day life. It seems that the government is on a mission of a major land grab strategy, where on one hand it has opened the flood gates for outsiders in local jobs, and on other hand it wants to fashion a mammoth that will continue eat on the land wherever it wants on the pretext of strategic areas,” he said.
He said the proposed amendment will drastically hit the prospects of tourism as well.
“If supposing our tourist destinations are declared as strategic areas, tourism development authorities would lose the power and will inevitably cease to exist. This will put employability of thousands of people drawing sustenance from such tourist spots in peril,” he said.
“Under President’s rule, the J&K administration has already given up 243 hectares of forest land for army and paramilitary use, over 727 hectares of designated forest land was diverted between September 18 and October 21 by the former forest advisory committee. The committee had also approved felling of 1847 trees that included 1471 in designated forest areas alone; one could well gauge the enormous destruction to our rich forest resources if the proposed amendments come into force. The amendment will circumvent the forest rules, regulation and with a stroke of pen have our natural resources obliterated that too in a fragile ecosystem,” Imran said.