Pressure from people forced government to stop eviction drive: Farooq

For the past few days, the eviction drive against encroachments, which had gained momentum during the last one month, has slowed down

National Conference president and Lok Sabha member from Srinagar Farooq Abdullah on Monday said the “pressure” from people forced the government to stop eviction drive in Jammu and Kashmir.

Pressure from people forced government to stop eviction drive: Farooq (ANI)

For the past few days, the eviction drive against encroachments, which had gained momentum during the last one month, has slowed down.

Even divisional commissioner of Kashmir, V K Bidhuri, had last week said that the drive has slowed as they were consolidating figures.

However, some officials acknowledged that they had been asked by the higher authorities to suspend the demolition drive for the time being due to “backlash” from the people of both provinces of J&K.

Farooq on Monday said that opposition from the people forced government to stop the demolition drive in J&K. “This demolition has stopped due to pressure from the public. Had people not raised their voices, they (government) would have gone for more demolitions. This happened due to public pressure,” he said on the sidelines of a function in Srinagar.

He said the voice of people is powerful enough to shake government’s.

“The voice of people has a great power and impact. When people raise it in unison, it has power to shake the government.”