Time will come when criminal activities will increase: PDP leader on new J-K land laws

A day after Jammu and Kashmir's land legislations were amended allowing outsiders to own land in the Union Territory, a PDP leader on Wednesday claimed a "time will come when criminal activities like rape will increase" and appealed to people to join hands against the "black law".

A day after Jammu and Kashmir's land legislations were amended allowing outsiders to own land in the Union Territory, a PDP leader on Wednesday claimed a "time will come when criminal activities like rape will increase" and appealed to people to join hands against the "black law". Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) General Secretary and former legislator Surinder Choudhary also claimed that nobody is going to buy land in Kashmir, but "the sword is hanging on the neck of the people in Jammu region".

The PDP staged a protest in Jammu demanding repeal of the new land laws. Led by Choudhary, PDP activists holding the tricolour as well as the party flag assembled at the PDP headquarters at Gandhi Nagar and staged a rally to lodge their resentment against the BJP-led central government over the laws. Addressing party workers after the rally, Choudhary said, "The time will come when you will see an increase in criminal activities like rape in broad daylight as we are witnessing outside Jammu and Kashmir... Only yesterday, a young student was shot dead by a youth after she refused his marriage proposal." He was apparently referring to the killing of a student outside her college in Haryana's Ballabhgarh on Monday.

"By this black law, anyone can come and buy land in Jammu and Kashmir. BJP has put Jammu on sale as nobody will buy an inch of land in Kashmir," the PDP leader said. In a gazette notification on Tuesday, the Centre omitted the phrase "permanent resident of the state" from Section 17 of the Jammu and Kashmir Development Act that deals with disposal of the land in the union territory, paving the way for people from outside Jammu and Kashmir to buy land in JK and Ladakh, over a year after the nullification of provisions under Articles 370 and 35A of the Constitution. Urging all sections of society to join hands to safeguard the Dogra identity and culture, Choudhary said, "I want to tell the people of Jammu that a day will come when history will not forgive them if they do not stand up against this onslaught to safeguard the future of our coming generations." "The BJP is out to finish the Dogra culture. The intellectuals, lawyers, businessmen, farmers and transporters and all others need to join hands for our future." Continuing his tirade against the BJP, Chaudhary said the saffron party was ruling Jammu and Kashmir over the past five years but has done nothing on the ground for the welfare of the people, especially of people of Jammu region who gave it 25 seats in 2014 assembly elections. He alleged that the BJP has failed to end discrimination with Jammu, provide jobs to the youth, promote tourism and water sports and complete projects like artificial lake and development of Tawi banks on the pattern of Sabarmati river in Gujarat as promised by the government.

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