PDP accuses NC govt of excluding Urdu from land records digitisation process
Srinagar: Urdu has become the latest political hot potato in Jammu and Kashmir. After the row over mandatory knowledge of the language for naib tehsildar recruitments, People's Democratic Party (PDP) legislator Waheed Parra on Saturday accused Omar Abdullah-led National Conference govt of digitising the land records in English, instead of Urdu.
Parra claimed the NC govt, with chief minister Omar holding the revenue portfolio, has ordered 'another round of land record digitisation' across J&K. 'This time, the process is being carried out exclusively in English, with Urdu, a language that has been integral to our revenue records for generations, completely removed,' he said.
Earlier, long before the 2024 govt formation, the J&K administration had allegedly given 'a multi-crore land digitisation contract' to one company, Parra said.
'The company scanned every single land document across districts, but digitised only Srinagar and Jammu in three years. The rest were rushed by overburdened revenue staff for months,' he alleged.
The PDP MLA also questioned the CM's silence on the issue.
Govt has not come up with any response on the issue so far. 'We will check it,' a govt spokesperson said, when asked.
Last month, a controversy erupted after J&K Services Selection Board issued a notification for naib tehsildar posts in the revenue department, making knowledge of Urdu, one of the five official languages of J&K, a mandatory requirement.
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BJP strongly protested the decision and termed it discriminatory.
Earlier this month, the Central Administrative Tribunal's Jammu bench stayed the mandatory Urdu clause in an interim order on a petition.
PDP president and former CM Mehbooba Mufti led the charge against the order, calling it 'deeply unfortunate'. In a post on X, she said: 'Urdu, a recognised official language for decades, is now being unfairly communalised. Our revenue records and administrative work continue to be maintained in Urdu, and it is only logical that applicants for the post of naib tehsildar possess basic proficiency in the language. This requirement is rooted purely in administrative efficiency, not in any form of divisiveness.
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