AAP leaders detained in Jammu during ‘dharna’ against anti-encroachment drive

Jammu: AAP leader Harsh Dev Singh, including two other partyment, were detained on Sunday during a protest outside Raj Bhawan here held against an anti-encroachment drive.

Before they were detained, the three sat on a dharna holding a tricolour flag in front of Raj Bhawan in protest against the drive.

“Though the Lieutenant Governor assured the poor they will not be evicted, the district and tehsil administration were dispossessing only the poor and un-influential while leaving the rich and powerful untouched,” the former minister said.

The Aam Aadmi Party leader said that several ex MLAs had carved out colonies by encroaching the state and other lands and sold them at exorbitant rates, while the poor continue to be harassed, intimidated, and persecuted despite the tall slogans of the LG. He called upon the ex-ministers, MLAs, and bureaucrats to come clean on the issue before initiating eviction proceedings against the poor, villagers, nomads, and other homeless people.

He said that selective action against the poor was not only reprehensible but amounted to a “sin of the highest order.” Singh also accused the LG administration of facilitating the encroachment of palatial mansions and those of state lands, forest lands, lands under the Jammu Development Authority, and municipal lands by ex-ministers, MLAs, and some saffron party leaders.

He alleged that several BJP leaders were reported to have regularised state lands under the Roshni scheme with full impunity.

Singh urged the civil society also to come forward to expose and oppose the authoritarian and dictatorial policies of the present corrupt regime.