Sajad Lone calls for overhaul of “oppressive” police verification system

Srinagar, Feb 19: Jammu & Kashmir Peoples Conference President and MLA Handwara Sajad Lone delivered an unsparing address in the Jammu & Kashmir Legislative Assembly on Thursday, raising issues he said were being conveniently ignored despite the House remaining in session for over a fortnight.

Lone’s most impassioned intervention centered on police verification, which he described as having “degenerated into a form of collective punishment. If one person in your family has committed a mistake, then hundreds of youth associated with that family are denied police clearance,” he said.

Citing a case from Baramulla district, Lone informed the House about a young man who had secured a job worth 2 lakhs in Hyderabad but was denied clearance on the grounds that his uncle was allegedly an overground worker. “The reality,” Lone stated, “was that the uncle had himself been killed by an overground militant.” Despite this, the application was rejected.

“In many cases,” he said, “the youth were born after the death of the person because of whom they are being punished. Are they not Indians? What will they do now?” He added that even medical graduates were being caught in the net, unable to practice despite years of study.

Urging Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to take up the matter in Delhi, Lone remarked pointedly, “He goes often, expressing his gratitude so many times that even the BJP doesn’t thank the PM as much as he does. At least go and tell them that our children are suffering.”

On demolitions, Lone highlighted what he called a glaring contradiction. While senior government functionaries had visited affected families in certain cases, the government’s formal reply in the House defended the actions. “They defended it,” Lone said flatly, “and they have defended all the demolitions.”

Issuing a broader caution, he stated, “This is a very bad time. lArticle 370 is gone, 35A is gone, the assembly was gone, we became a UT. There is a toxic environment. Whatever this government does today can be used against us.”

Referring to developments in his constituency of Handwara, Lone said 55 shopkeepers who had purchased shops through government auctions decades ago had been served eviction notices. “You know very well,” he told the Treasury benches, “that in the event of a hostile government, these very notices will be used for dispossession and you know exactly in which region.”

On homestays and tourism, Lone described certain bureaucratic requirements as excessive. While he acknowledged the need for police intimation for security purposes, he questioned the insistence on municipal permissions in areas where such approvals had never historically been required.

“Heavens won’t fall if they don’t have one. Look at your own constituencies, 90% don’t have this permission either. Let people work, let them earn.”

In a lighter but pointed exchange, Lone addressed veteran CPI(M) legislator Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, stating that while he held him in deep respect, he was surprised to see a self-described Leftist praising a government he said was “delivering nothing.” “That old comrade spirit,” he quipped, “is no longer visible.”

Concluding his address, Lone turned to the issue of daily wagers and criticized what he termed a dismissive tone adopted in public discourse. “I saw the Honorable CM speaking on TV in a very arrogant tone, basically saying, ‘Do whatever you want to do.’”

“True valor would have been if they had used this tone before the elections, when they were promising to regularize all of them,” he said. In his closing remarks, Lone added, “If you can’t regularize them, at least use kind words.” (KNS)