Srinagar: PDP MLA from Pulwama on Monday joined local farmers in paddy transplantation as a mark of protest against the Jammu and Kashmir government’s attempts to evict the land tillers.
Waheed Ur Rehman Para drove a tractor as he ploughed a paddy field and later joined the farmers in sowing paddy saplings.
“The authorities had destroyed the saplings and threatened the farmers with the Public Safety Act (PSA) if they cultivate the land again. So I joined the farmers in cultivating the land again,” Para told PTI.
Although the land in question is state land, he said, claiming that farmers tilled it for more than 100 years.
“I do not understand why the government wants to undertake construction on a fertile piece of land! There is so much barren land available. Why cannot they use those tracts?” the MLA from Pulwama asked.
Another PDP leader, Iltija Mufti, who also visited the Padgampora area of Pulwama, questioned the government’s intentions behind trying to prevent cultivation of the fertile land.
“This is agricultural land and farmers have been growing rice and mustard for more than 100 years. Why is the revenue department (officials) threatening farmers with PSA if they cultivate the land?” she asked.
Iltija said the government should stop evicting people from their land.
“I want to ask this NC government why you are chasing away people from their lands. The revenue department is headed by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah,” she said.
She claimed that the authorities had disrupted irrigation water supply to the Padgampora area, which was restored only after the PDP MLA held a protest there.
