| BJP says minutes note fraud, PDP minister Zulfikar says no | | Administrative immunity' to land grabbers | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Mar 8: The revelation made on Wednesday by a Jammu-based lawyer Ankur Sharma during press conference has brought the PDP and the BJP, two coalition partners, face to face with each other. J&K BJP general secretary (organization) Ashok Koul has dismissed the 5-page document on the review meeting of the Tribal Affairs Department as a fraud.
Terming the record note of the Tribal Affairs Ministry as "fraud and fabricated", Ashok Koul said: "No such decision was taken in that meeting. It (the record note) is all fraud and fabricated".
Ashok Koul was reacting to the three main revelations that (1) no authority shall disturb/dislocate any member or family of the tribal community occupying state and forest land illegally till a new tribal policy was adopted, that (2) police will not provide protection for eviction of the tribals from the illegally occupied state/forest land, and that (3) no one will "misuse Section 188 and Animal Cruelty Act" to harass the tribal community, thus directly or indirectly promoting bovine smuggling.
However, Minister for Tribal Affairs Choudhary Zulfikar Ali has contested Ashok Koul and said that whatever embodied in the record note was based on the proceeding of the meeting, held on February 14, 2018, was correct, and not a fraud or fabrication.
"Yes, these directions were passed by the Chief Minister during the meeting," Choudhary Zulfikar Ali was quoted as saying.
It is important to note that the February 14 meeting, among others, was attended by Choudhary Zulfikar Ali (PDP), Minister for Department of Tribal Affairs; Ajay Nanda (BJP), MoS Tribal Affairs; Chief Secretary; Principal Secretary to Government, Home department; Principal Secretary to Chief Minister; Commissioner/Secretary, Forest Department; Divisional Commissioner Jammu; Commissioner/Secretary to the Government, Forest and Environment Department; Director, Tribal Affairs; Deputy Commissioner, Jammu and Samba; and Inspector General of Police, Jammu. It is also relevant to point out that it was Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, who had presided over the meeting.
To be more precise, it was not just Ajay Nanda of the BJP who had attended the meeting, but the Commissioner/Secretary, Forest Department; Divisional Commissioner Jammu and Commissioner/Secretary to the Government, Forest and Environment had also attended the meeting. The Forest Department is under the control of the BJP minister.
All these BJP ministers holding the Forest Department and Ajay Nanda, MoS Forest Department, need to take the concerned public into confidence by telling them what transpired and what didn't transpire during the meeting. Such an approach alone could help the BJP salvage its position. Ashok Koul is not in the government; he is just a party functionary. Only the concerned BJP ministers can clear all the cobwebs of confusion by revealing the truth.
If the PDP Minister for Forest Choudhary Zulfikar Ali could come to the press to rebut Ashok Koul, why can't the three BJP ministers follow the same path? This is the only course left to allay the fears of the concerned people of Jammu province in general and Jammu province's Jammu, Kathua, Samba and Udhampur districts in particular given the fact that the Deputy Commissioners of these districts have been directed to follow the government's three directions. |
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