If voted to power, BJP will bring back land to SASB: Rajnath

Jammu, Jul 5 (UNI) The Bharatiya Janata Party today said it would transfer the revoked forest land back to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) if voted to power.

After visiting the injured in the Bhaderwah protest incident at the Government Medical College here, BJP president Rajnath Singh, addressing a press conference, blamed the state government for ''bowing to the pressure of the separatist leadership of Kashmir'' and said if voted to power, the BJP would give back the land to the SASB.

He alleged that the state government had revoked the land diversion to the SASB with the consent of the UPA government at the Centre.

Mr Singh said the land transfer issue was ''politicised'' and all Kashmir-centric parties were responsible for flaring it up.

''The Jammu and Kashmir government is in minority and it has no legal right to revoke the order. I feel that the land should immediately be handed over to the Shrine Board,'' he said, asking, ''What made the government revoke the order once it was passed in favour of the Board? It was only the separatists' pressure that forced the government to take back its decision.'' The BJP president said, ''Article 370 is also one of the major reasons for turmoil in Jammu and Kashmir. It should be abolished for an overall development of all the regions of the state.'' ''I appreciate the Muslim organisations that condemned the government and stood in support of the saffron parties expressing concern over the issue,'' he said, adding that the Amarnath shrine was not only a subject of religious sentiments but it was a matter of nation's pride as it united the country with Kashmir.

''The Amarnath issue will rock Parliament and if the BJP is voted to power, the SASB will get back the land,'' Mr Singh asserted.

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