Srinagar, October 31: J&K Peoples Movement (JKPM) has said that the notification of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Adaptation of Central Laws) Third Order will re-introduce zamindari system in J&K.
In an interaction with party members, JKPM Senior Vice President Advocate Syed Iqbal Tahir said the government’s order has also abolished the historic Big Land Estate Abolition Act, 1950 – under whose aegis J&K had witnessed the radical redistribution of land which paved way for rural prosperity and ended landlordism in J&K. “The repeal of the Big Estates Abolition Act is a grave insult to the sacrifices of our forefathers who fought against autocratic and oppressive rule”, Iqbal Tahir said in his statement.
Iqbal Tahir further said that the reforms introduced in J&K through Big Land Estate Abolition Act, 1950 marked the fulfilment of key objectives enshrined in Sheikh Abdullah’s Naya Kashmir programme. He reminded the people that Dogra regime’s land policies that spurred a whole movement for land redistribution and other civil rights waged by Muslim peasants in the 1930s. The Dogra regime had made religious affiliation a basis for access to state resources in Kashmir, placing a certain section of society in a position of privilege at the cost of hapless Kashmiri peasants.
He said that JKPM along with other members of the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration will oppose tooth and nail the land laws introduced by the government. He reiterated the PAGD’s position terming the new land laws as a massive assault on the rights of the people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh and grossly unconstitutional.
