Srinagar, Jan 06 : National Conference (NC) on Thursday denounced the allocation of 1034 Kanals of land to the Army under ‘Strategic Areas Act' in Kashmir's Gulmarg and 354 Kanals in Sonamarg.
“Our reservations about the ‘strategic areas act' are evidenced by this reckless land transfer. We had contended that the act will be used arbitrarily to grab civilian, tourist and other mineral resources rich areas. The recent transfer order substantiates our detestation for the act,” Party's General Secretary Ali Muhammad Sagar said.
In a similar statement, CPI (M) leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami on Thursday said that the Jammu and Kashmir government must review its decision to declare 1034 kanals of land at Gulmarg and 354 kanals in Sonmarg as “strategic areas” for the use of armed forces as these are two most popular tourist destinations in the valley.
“There are already a lot of areas with the army for such purposes. Gulmarg and Sonamarg along with Pahalgam are three most popular tourist destinations in the Valley which need to be promoted for tourism purposes,” Tarigami said.
Criticizing the measure, NC leader, Sagar said that the constitutional propriety demanded to halt any such decisions because such decisions are a consequence of August 5,2019 decisions, which are constitutionally suspect and awaiting the due validation from the constitutional bench of the Supreme Court of India.
He argued that by taking such measures, the government was anticipating the verdict of the Supreme Court.
Despite India's Climate Pledges, Sagar stated, GoI is diverting more forest Land to the Armed Forces. “Ever since Article 370 was read down and the Union government took charge of the erstwhile states, 250 hectares of ecologically fragile land have been diverted for non-forestry purposes. This stands in stark contrast to the pledge taken by India at the recent COP26 climate summit to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by increasing the country's forest cover,” he added.
