On February 11, the president of the Apni Party, Altaf Bukhari, said his party would not allow non-locals to settle in Jammu and Kashmir. He also criticised the ongoing anti-encroachment drive by the administration to take control of the government land.
He claimed his party would reverse all the “anti-people” decisions made by the administration once his party came to power. “The administration has no right to displace people from their land. If we form the next government, we will reverse anti-people decisions of the administration like stopping the darbar move practice and anti-encroachment drives,” he added.
Speaking at a function organised to welcome PDP leader from Samba Sanny Sangral to join Apni Party at its Gandhi Nagar headquarters, the former minister said, “We will not allow the non-locals to settle in Jammu and Kashmir. The land in J&K belongs to the people of the erstwhile state.” He further said, “It does not matter how much security they provide to them [non-locals]. No non-locals can live on our land. This land belongs to us. The people of Jammu and Kashmir own this land. If they think they can bring people to settle here on the cleared land, we will not sit idle. We will fight for the land and not allow any non-local to settle here.”
Giving an example of Delhi, he added the administration had no other option but to regularise the unauthorised colonies. He said, “Even the government in Delhi has regularised such colonies from time to time, but it seems they do not understand the issues of the poor people.”
Bukhari blamed Bharatiya Janata Party for delaying the elections in the Union Territory.