Parties react on expected lines to Govt decision allowing land purchase in J&K

In a bid to strengthen the integration of Jammu and Kashmir with India, the Union government has notified new land laws which non-J&K citizens to buy land in the Union Territory (UT) of Jammu & Kashmir. Political parties have reacted in accordance with their beliefs.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization (Adaptation of Central Laws) Third Order, 2020, which “will encourage development in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir.” The Order has been made possible by the abrogation Article 370 of the Constitution on 5 August 2019.

Political reactions to Centre’s decision have been on expected lines. While the Bharatiya Janata Party said that the new land laws would open the “floodgates of development,” the seven-party People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration on Tuesday strongly condemned the move as a “huge betrayal.”

Senior BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Kavinder Gupta said in a statement, “The amendments in the land laws will mark the beginning of a new era of development in the Union Territory with new avenues waiting for the residents to become part of this new journey of progress and prosperity which Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised to one and all.”

On the other hand, Alliance spokesperson Sajad Lone said that it was a "massive assault" on the rights of the people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh and "grossly unconstitutional."

"The Alliance has vowed to fight the step that is against Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh on all fronts," he said in a statement. "The repeal of Big Estates Abolition Act—first ever agrarian reform in the subcontinent—is an insult to the sacrifices of thousands of freedom fighters and farmers who fought against an autocratic and oppressive rule and a crude attempt to rewrite history. The order made in exercise of powers under the Reorganization Act, 2019, is yet another brazen violation of the principle of constitutional proprietary of fundamental importance to a constitutional democracy," Lone added..