Jammu, Mar 21 (PTI) Apni Party president Altaf Bukhari on Monday termed August 5, 2019 as black day for Jammu and Kashmir and said the people are facing multiple issues including loot of their resources in the aftermath of the abrogation of Article 370
He claimed that the BJP will taste a "crushing defeat" in the next assembly elections for its "anti-people" policies
I want to ask those people who did injustice with J-K on August 5, 2019 - the day we consider as black day - that their perception about Article 370 being the stumbling block in the development has failed, Bukhari said, addressing a public rally at Vijaypur in Samba district.
He said the 200-year-old J and K state was reduced to a Union Territory and one of its parts, Ladakh, was also separated after creating a perception among the people that the scrapping of Article 370 was important to allow development in the region.
In last four years of your rule, we have not seen any development. Instead, the mining and wine mafia from UP and Bihar have taken over the natural resources and started unchecked loot, he said, expressing anger over the growing unemployment, underdevelopment and poor health care facilities at the village level.
He said the Apni Party would not allow these outsiders in J-K.
The resources of J-K belong to the people of the erstwhile state and if we come to power, we will throw them out of Lakhanpur.
He said after the revocation of Article 370, the people are facing multiple issues and there is a need to have an elected government.
It seems that until an elected government comes to power, the present form of government will loot the resources using the outsiders, he alleged.
He questioned those who celebrated the abrogation of special status and said time has come when people have to stand up like Punjab and fight back to throw the mafia out of J-K.
We have to fight like people in Punjab where they changed the traditional political parties and made a choice for a better future. Therefore, the people of J-K should also support the Apni Party for equitable development and employment, Bukhari said.
Questioning the snatching of land from the people in Jammu's different districts including Samba and Kathua on the pretext of anti-encroachment drive, he said it was not the right of the government to evict people from the land which they cultivated for decades.
We will not allow harassment of the people in J-K. The Apni Party will fight it back and restore the rights of the people on such lands which belong to them for a long time, he said.
He said the people of Jammu are in great distress because of the BJP which misled them when they revoked J-K's special status on August 5, 2019 pretending that flood gates of development and employment will open thereafter.
Do you find any development or employment? he asked and claimed that the BJP will not be able to cross the double figures during the next assembly elections in J-K.
Bukhari said the Darbar Move', a practice under which the government used to function six months each in Srinagar and Jammu, was stopped suddenly, which was against the economic interests of Jammu businessmen.
I want to ask a question to the business community in Jammu who support BJP whether the decision was in their favour. No, it was not in their favour as the business of Jammu was hit badly and the coordinal relations between the two regions were also affected with this decision, he said.
He said if his party comes to power, it will restore the practice in favour of the two regions, their people and the business community.
Bukahri said their struggle for the restoration of statehood to J-K will continue
