J&K Opened For Real Estate Investors: APHC Smacks Conspiracy  

Srinagar- Hurriyat Conference led by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq on Tuesday sought international attention towards what it alleged was “systemic demographic change being foisted upon Muslim majority Jammu & Kashmir”.

Reacting to the government decision to open Jammu and Kashmir to the real estate investors from across India, Hurriyat alleged that new policy aims at sale of land and natural resources to outsiders to effect a demographic change in Kashmir.

In a press statement released here on Tuesday APHC alleged that Government of India wants to “change the demographic character of Muslim majority J&K and disempower its residents through such diktats and measures in order to scuttle  the final resolution of the long standing international political dispute of Kashmir in accordance with the will and aspirations of its people”.

“Since August 2019,  in succession one after other authoritarian  laws and diktats are being implemented in J&K towards this end and to facilitate the electoral prospects of the ruling party in India as J&K has become its favourite whipping boy”, Hurriyat said.

Hurriyat also accused the ruling dispensation of pursuing the “divide and rule policy by dividing the population of J&K on the basis of religions, regions, ethnicities and political interests to fracture political aspirations and voices”.

The Jammu and Kashmir government on Monday opened the union territory to the country’s real estate investors by signing 39 MoUs worth nearly Rs 19,000 crore for the development of housing, hotel and commercial projects.

Terming the signing of the MoUs at J&K’s first Real Estate Summit here as “historic”, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha said it is a major step towards transformation of Jammu and Kashmir.

Addressing a press conference at the summit, he said the government has already implemented the realty law RERA and adopted the Model Tenancy Act in the UT.

He assured realtors that the government will reduce stamp duty on registration of properties in line with other states and set up a single-window system for faster approval of projects.

Asked about opposition parties’ allegations that land parcels of the local people will be taken away in the name of development, Sinha said this is an “effort to create fear and incite people”. There will be no demographic change, he added.