Illegal occupants vacated from govt accommodations in J&K village; NC leader faces flak for false narrative

National Conference spokesperson faced criticism for his misleading tweet on the condition of some Prime Minister's Special Employment Package (PMSEP) employees who were directed by the Court to vacate the government accommodation, which they had illegally occupied.

As the local police assisted the concerned departments to vacate the quarters from illegal occupants, media head of Youth National Conference Umesh Talashi shared a video on his Twitter handle to "highlight the highhandedness" of the authorities.

"Unfortunately the plight of Kashmiri Pandits under the current regime has worsened more. The KP employee families are living on roads in Kashmir Valley. Received many distress calls from Vessue Migrant Camp. Urge HLG @manojsinha_ Sb to address this issue at the earliest. Worrisome situation," he tweeted.

Netizens reacted strongly against the NC leader for trying to spread a misinformation campaign on this issue.

"Kindly verify the entire story before supporting these 27 odd families who have brazenly broken all the laws in the book to grab these quarters despite having government accommodation. They must go back to their old quarters which they have sold to their relatives", a netizen reacted.

Authorities acted under Court's direction

Rakesh, a social activist of the Vessu migrant camp, told International Bussiness Times that some unscrupulous elements are trying to create a false narrative of the whole episode. He strongly defended the action of the authorities to evict quarters from illegal occupants.

"Out of a total 3,500 employees appointed under Prime Minister's package, only 1,200 were provided accommodation. New quarters were constructed to provide accommodations to left-over employees but some employees have illegally occupied by these quarters", he said.

Zahid Sajjad, Nodal Officer appointed to address grievances of all Prime Minister's package employees of Kulgam district, said that he was not aware of the incident. "Maybe action has been taken to evict quarters from illegal occupants under the directions of the Court but I am not aware of any such incident", he said.

Court earlier asked authorities for immediate eviction of unauthorized occupants

On July 6, the Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court gas dismissed the petitions filed by migrant employees who are under the unauthorized occupation of new residential quarters at Transit camp Vessu.

The Court has directed the authorities to evict them by using force as may be required to accomplish violence-free eviction if they don't vacate in one week.

The bench headed by Justice Sanjeev Kumar also directed SHO concerned to register FIR and investigate the matter as had been communicated by the Tehsildar Relief and Rehabilitation (M) Srinagar.

Moreover, the employers of the unauthorized occupants were left free by the court to initiate disciplinary proceedings against petitioners for having committed misconduct.