Houses, boundary walls of minister, bureaucrat, police officers damaged
DC Budgam vandalizes graveyard at Friends Enclave Humhama
Two days before completing its tenure, the government has started a demolition drive on the residences of some bigwigs including top politician, bureaucrats and police officers in Humhama area of Budgam.
The government also removed the gate and the board of the graveyard at the Friends Enclave in Humhama.
The demolition drive was supervised by Deputy Commissioner Budgam, Manzoor Ahmad Lone and Senior Superintendent of Police Budgam, Muhammad Irshad Hussain, an official spokesman said.
During the demolition drive, a number of plinths and fencing walls including those of a top politician like Minister for Hajj, Auqaf and Public Enterprise Peerzada Sayeed, a former bureaucrat and now politician Farooq Renzu and a Deputy Superintendent of Police were demolished.
Three residential houses were sealed as these were illegally constructed on Kah-charie land, the spokesman said.
Talking to us, Divisional Commissioner Rohit Kansal said the administration would take a strong action against any encroachment on the State land and the grazing land.
Official sources said that the Divisional Commissioner had asked the DC Budgam to carry the demolition drive way back but that had been put on hold, first due to floods and then due to polls.
The official spokesman said that the drive was carried to retrieve and protect the Kha-charie land.
He said that the drive had been carried out in compliance with the directions of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court regarding the protection and retrieval of Kah-charie land and the directions given by the Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir.
The official spokesman said that the drive for eviction of Kah-charie land would continue and revenue functionaries had been directed to report all such encroachments for similar action.
Talking to Rising Kashmir, the bureaucrat-turned-politician, Farooq Renzu played down the demolition drive saying the government had dismantled a boundary wall of the house of one of his relatives not his.
The team carrying the demolition drive also removed the gate and the board on the graveyard in the Friends Enclave at Humhama without asking informing the local welfare committee about it.
A member of the Welfare cum Consumer Committee of Friends Enclave Humhama said that the graveyard had been allotted to the residents five years back.
“Today the DC Budgam without asking the welfare committee vandalized the graveyard and removed its gate and board,” he said. “It was not an encroachment and the DC should have asked the locals to furnish the documents first before going for the demolition drive.”
Another resident of the locality said DC Budgam thinks he is the owner of all the land in Budgam and takes such harsh decisions.
Meanwhile, the official spokesman appealed the general public to cooperate and vacate Kah-charie land on their own in Budgam district.
