Proposed property tax has brought back bitter memories of despotic rule: PDP

Srinagar: Comparing the proposed property tax to the exploitative taxation regime during monarchical rule, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senior leader & former legislator Mohammad Khurshed Alam in a strongly worded statement said that dictatorial policies are being implemented in J&K at the behest of communal elements to cripple our economy and enforce asset devaluation.
“The “property tax” order smacks of the despotic and anarchic rule the people of this land have witnessed for hundreds of years when we were crushed under the heavy burden of taxation. It is nothing but the revival of that dark, dreadful and disastrous era to which Kashmir’s blood soaked history is synonymous,” Alam said.
Lamenting the insensitive and step motherly treatment meted out to Kashmiris especially post August 5 Alam said that the wounds inflicted by the unconstitutional, illegal and unnatural abrogation of Article 370 are still fresh and yet each day new methods are invented to push the people towards the corner.
He pointed out that on one side government is launching PR campaigns like Back to village programs and promising slogans like Vikas etc to justify abrogation and on the other promising 3 lakh houses to homeless people under new housing policy, issuing citizenship and jobs to outsiders and attacking locals by taxing, raids and systemic disempowerment.
“Is this the roadmap of Naya Kashmir which the government epitomized in the parliament on August 5, 2019? Alam questioned.