A day after Chief Minister Omar Abdullah accused officers appointed by the Lieutenant Governor of carrying out demolitions without the elected government’s knowledge, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) accused that the government of “hiding behind the LG” and failing to protect Kashmiris from homelessness and economic distress.
The PDP accused CM Omar Abdullah of encouraging administration to make people homeless by rejecting PDP’s land bill that was introduced by them in the J&K Legislative Assembly last month.
“Demolition is happening in freezing temperatures. People are being made homeless. For this, the PDP brought a bill for land protection. And they were called land grabbers. The Chief Minister said that. That gave encouragement to the entire bureaucracy. And you can see how people are being made homeless,” PDP senior leader and party chief spokesman Mehboob Beg told reporters in Srinagar.
PDP leader said the people had given a massive mandate to National Conference in the last year election and when the PDP introduced a land protection bill, the government instead labelled people as “land grabbers,” sending a message to the administration to “go and make them homeless.”
PDP leader accused the elected government of “hiding behind the LG” and failing to protect people from demolitions and economic distress.
“We believe the elected government is hiding behind the LG. It should be completely unmasked,” PDP leaders said, adding that the government must answer for the current situation. He said that the elected government right to question ended on October 8, 2024.
Beg said the elected government has a mandate and they have to take action.
“Our elected Chief Minister speaks like as if he is the opposition leader. ..They (elected government) have to ensure Kashmiris do not become homeless. They have to look at the economic condition of the people,” PDP leaders said.
On the dual power control in J&K, Beg said elected government was showing helplessness.
“Who will remove this (dual power control)? Will the opposition remove it
Will the Government of India remove it? The elected government will remove it,” the PDP leader said. “Millions of people voted for them. Why did they vote for them? Not to show helplessness. Not to show weakness.”
The PDP questioned why the Chief Minister continued in office if he believed he lacked the power to stop demolitions.
“If they do not have the power, then for God’s sake the CM should tell us — why are they there What are they doing? Why are they not answering the people?” the leader asked.
