Omar Abdullah Says No To PDP's Land Rights Bill, Earns BJP Praise
Omar Abdullah Says No To PDP's Land Rights Bill, Earns BJP Praise
M.U.H
29/10/202519
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah accused opposition PDP on Tuesday of bringing the land rights bill in the Assembly for the sake of politics as he said there are no safeguards in the proposed legislation for the residents of the Union Territory.
The BJP cheered the Chief Minister for "aborting" what it called a "land jihad bill".
The bill that sought to grant ownership rights to residents of J&K who have been living in houses built on state land for over 20 years was introduced in the assembly by PDP MLA Waheed Para.
Omar Abdullah, who is also the minister in charge Revenue, opposed the bill and termed it an attempt to help land mafia.
"The bill was aimed at helping land mafia, to help those who have illegally occupied land," the Chief Minister said.
He said the proposed bill had no provisions to identify if the beneficiaries are genuine residents of J&K.
"How can we pass a bill that helps the land mafia and illegal encroachers? In which, it cannot be said whether they are citizens of J&K or have they come here recently and built houses, but we have to give them land," he said.
The PDP, however, argued that the proposed bill was an "anti-bulldozer bill", aimed at safeguarding the rights of J&K residents who are being issued eviction notices.
"Calling state subjects living on state land "land grabbers" is a dangerous narrative that endorses demolitions. The J&K Regularisation and Recognition of Property Rights Bill 2025 was meant to protect people, not vilify them. @CM_JnK could've defended his stance with better judgement and vocabulary," said the PDP leader.
BJP's Sunil Sharma, Leader of the Opposition in J&K Assembly, said giving ownership rights to illegal encroachers was meant to change demography and hailed Chief Minister for "defeating nefarious designs" of PDP.
"The bill proposed by Waheed Parra was aimed at helping those who have encroached land as part of land jihad and changing demography. I thank Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. I am highly thankful to him for showing a mirror to PDP. He aborted their nefarious designs by rejecting their bill," said Sharma.
After the PDP leader refused to withdraw the bill, Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather put it to vote, but it received the support of only three members.
The bill was defeated by a voice vote.
Tanvir Sadiq, National Conference spokesman, claimed that the bill would have only helped illegal occupants to claim the land ownership regardless of their domicile.
He said there is a separate bill for granting land ownership to legitimate occupants from J&K and it will come up in the next budget session.
The National Conference spokesman said the PDP and BJP are complementing each other.
"One is misleading people by proposing a bill aimed at helping illegal encroachers and the other terming it a land jihad," he said.
(ndtv)
