Real-estate summit sparks anger in Kashmir

NT Correspondent

Srinagar: On Monday, the administration said that 39 MoUs worth Rs 18,300 crore were signed today to “foster growth and development” in Jammu and Kashmir and it included investments in the residential, commercial, infrastructure, and film sectors.

“Barriers to businesses in J&K have been removed. The UT of Jammu & Kashmir is now an attractive place to do business and invest,” said JK LG Manoj Sinha while terming the event as a “historic milestone” in J&K’s Real estate sector.

In Jammu and Kashmir, the political parties however reacted sharply. Former JK Cheif Minister and People Democratic Party Cheif, Mehbooba Mufti said, “J&Ks special status was illegally revoked to dehumanise, dispossess & disempower the only Muslim majority state in India”.

“GOI’s (Government of India’s) brazen loot & sale of our resources shows that the sole motive is to annihilate our identity & change the demography,” she wrote on Twitter.

National Conference Vice President and former J&K CM Omar Abdullah said “once again the true intentions of the government are brought to the fore.” “J&K is being put up for sale. People of Jammu should beware, “investors” will buy up land in Jammu long before Kashmir,” he said.

Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh, in his address, said that J&K is now entering the “mainstream journey of PM Modi’s New India” and the first-ever ‘Real Estate Summit’ is “one of the important links to connect it to mainstream India.”