'Move to regularise 20 unauthorised colonies a sinister plan'

Hardline Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani today termed Jammu and Kashmir government's move to regularise 20 unauthorised colonies housing non-state subjects as a "sinister plan" to change the demography of the state.
"The government's move to regularise 20 unauthorised colonies in Jammu province is a sinister plan. The government of India is working on a long-term plan to change the demography of the state and it wants to settle the non-state subjects so that Muslims are made a minority in the region," Geelani said in a statement here.
Geelani accused all the mainstream political parties in the state of "silently taking dictation from New Delhi".

"Though National Conference, Peoples Democratic Party, State Congress and others are taking silent dictation from New Delhi, Congress minister (for Housing) Raman Bhalla has been entrusted with a special task in this regard and he sometimes even bypasses the state administration to take decisions," he said.
The state government on Wednesday had ordered "immediate regularisation" of un-authorised colonies within the jurisdictions of Jammu and Srinagar Development Authorities, in a meeting chaired by Bhalla.
The meeting opined that the residents of about two dozen unauthorised colonies in Jammu and Srinagar cities, who are mostly poor people, have remained without the benefits of several welfare schemes launched by the Central government and it is high time to regularise these colonies to extend such benefits to the people, an official spokesman said on Wednesday.

The officers were directed to clear all the bottlenecks and come up with the concrete proposal to get the formal nod of the government.