Early Times Report
Jammu, July 2: Will the Governor administration in J&K withdraw the highly controversial and "dangerous" February 14, 2014 minutes of the Tribal Affairs Department, which have created a furore across Jammu province for obvious reasons? If reports from Kashmir are any indication, then, yes, there is the possibility of the controversial minutes being withdrawn.
On February 14, 2018, the then CM Mehbooba Mufti had presided over a review meeting of the Tribal Affairs Department. The meeting was attended by many a number of ministers, including PDP leader and Tribal Affairs Minister Zulfikar and BJP minister Ajay Nanda; Secretaries to the Government; Divisional Commission, many Deputy Commissioners and Inspector General of Police Jammu.
During the meeting, the CM issued directions to the Deputy Commissioners, especially Deputy Commissioners of Kathua, Samba, Jammu and Udhampur (all in Jammu province) to not disturb or dislocate tribal people from the forest, state or any other land occupied illegally without the permission of the Tribal Affairs Department. The CM also directed the IGP Jammu and police not to provide "police protection" for evicting the land encroachers without the permission of the Tribal Affairs Department. Not just this, the CM also directed the police not to invoke Sec 188 of the Ranbir Penal Code and Cruelty to Animals Act without the permission of the Tribal Affairs Department. In other words, she asked the police not to check bovine smuggling from Jammu.
Reports from Kashmir suggest that only last week BJP national general secretary and in-charge J&K, Ram Madhav; former DY CM Kavinder Gupta; party chief Ravinder Raina; and former minister Sat Sharma and Rajeev Jasrotia met with Governor NN Vohra, his two advisors and the chief secretary at Srinagar and demanded that works on several projects sanctioned by the central government be expedited.
Commenting on the outcome of the meeting, Kavinder Gupta reportedly said: "Yes, these decisions (eviction of the nomadic families and withdrawal of the minutes of the meeting) were taken at meetings of the BJP leaders with the two advisors of the Governor and the Chief Secretary at Srinagar. Action will be taken within a month".
If what Kavinder Gupta said was true, then it can be said that the minutes will be withdrawn and if at all it happens, it would be considered CM's humiliating defeat. It is important to note that she defended her directions even after the BJP withdrew its support to her government in a press conference. |
