Srinagar, Oct 28: The Jammu and Kashmir Assembly on Tuesday rejected a private member’s bill seeking to recognise proprietary rights for houses illegally built on government and community lands with Chief Minister Omar Abdullah strongly opposing it saying that its passage would “open floodgates for land grab”.

The bill, tabled by PDP MLA Wahid Para, aimed to grant ownership or transfer rights to residents currently in possession of houses built on these lands, citing the ‘right to shelter’ guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution.

“How can we pass a bill that helps the land mafia and illegal encroachers? In which, it cannot be said whether they are citizens of Jammu and Kashmir or have they come here recently and built houses, but we have to give them land,” Abdullah told reporters o

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