Mehbooba Mufti echoes Abdullah's 'up for sale' spin as Centre allows buying land in J&K

As the Centre allowed all Indians to buy land in Jammu and Kashmir by applying the real estate act to the state, tweaking the existing land law, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti has called it another "vicious attempt" to deprive the people of Jammu and Kashmir of their rights. In a series of tweets, Mufti claimed that the BJP has failed to provide bread and employment to the people of India and is now luring voters by enacting such laws to satisfy their hunger. Stating that the people of the three regions of Jammu and Kashmir are protesting unitedly, she added that all these amendments are "unconstitutional and illegal decisions". 

Mufti was released from preventive detention after one year of abrogation of Article 370 and as soon as she was out, she stoked controversy by stating that she would not hoist the national Tricolour flag, until the flag of erstwhile state of J&K is restored.

READ | Omar Abdullah Terms Centre's New J&K Domicile Law 'hollow'; Calls Timing As 'suspect'

Omar Abdullah had also expressed his disapproval of the newly amended laws. Taking to Twitter he said that it is unacceptable. "Even the tokenism of domicile has been done away with when purchasing non-agricultural land & transfer of agricultural land has been made easier. J&K is now up for sale & the poorer small land holding owners will suffer," Omar said. 

Meanwhile, the newly formed People's Alliance of Gupkar Declaration or the Gupkar Alliance also released a statement stating that the amendments are unconstitutional. PAGD spokesperson Sajad Lone opined that this was a massive assault on the rights of the people of J&K and Ladakh. He stressed that the alliance will fight these measures on all fronts. Moreover, Lone slammed the repeal of the J&K Big Landed Estates Abolition Act, which he termed as the "first-ever agrarian reform in the subcontinent". According to him, this was an insult to the sacrifices of thousands of freedom fighters who fought against an autocratic rule.

READ | 'Grossly unconstitutional': Gupkar Alliance slams Centre's move to amend land laws in J&K

What are the new laws?

The Ministry of Home Affairs on Tuesday, issued the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Adaptation of Central Laws) Third Order, 2020 repealing or substituting 26 laws of the erstwhile state. By omitting 'permanent resident of the state' from Section 17 of the Jammu and Kashmir Development Act, the restriction on the purchase of land by people from outside J&K has been done away with. 

READ | J&K: MoS PMO Announces Further Amendments To UT's 'domicile Law' To Include More Residents

Centre issues new domicile law for J&K

In April this year, the Centre issued a gazette notification defining the domicile of the newly bifurcated Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir. It states that a domicile of J&K is one 'who has resided for 15 years in J&K, or has studied for 7 years and appeared in Class 10/12 exam in J&K, or is registered as migrant by the Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner.' The order also includes 'children of government employees who have served in Jammu and Kashmir for a total period of ten years or children of parents who fulfil any of the conditions in sections'. The Centre had abrogated Article 370 & Article 35 A which defined the permanent residents of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Later in September, the Jammu and Kashmir government issued over 18.52 lakh domicile certificates (DCs) against more than 21.99 lakh applications received. Across 20 districts of the Union territory, 20,87,815 of the 21,99,513 people applications were found complete in all respects, while the rest were rejected. Additionally, the Parliament also passed the Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Bill, under which Kashmiri, Dogri, and Hindi, apart from the existing Urdu and English have been included as J&K's official languages.

READ | Centre defines domicile for J&K, includes those living for 15 years & registered migrant