RAJOURI FEBRUARY 20:—JKPCC President G A Mir alongwith Working President Raman Bhalla and a team of Senior leaders addressed an impressive gathering at Rajouri to take stock of the resentment against the proposed delimitation report apart from the ongoing membership drive of the party. Organised by the District Congress Committee led by President Shabir Ahmed Khan,the gathering was attended, Former MLA Ashok Sharma, JKPCC Chief Spokesperson Ravinder Sharma, Pranab Shagotra, Gajan Singh, Jatin Sharma besides all prominent local Congress leaders,councillors, Sarpnches,Panches and others.
Speaking on the occasion, Mir strongly criticised the leaked delimitation report which has disturbed and perturbed the people across regions and districts as well as assembly segments.The report is yet to be made public but series of protests are taking place at most of the areas. He called upon the party’s rank and file to work together to bring the Congress back to power in J&K. He said Congress during its rule implemented several projects in the interest of citizens. It was the Congress which ensured rapid development of every nook and corner of J&K. Be it water, drainage or roads, Congress was instrumental in ensuring basic amenities to citizens. He claimed that after BJP came to power, development has come to standstill and corruption has taken over. He also highlighted issue of lack of coordination between the officers of the line departments. He said govt failed to work with devotion,dedication and make outcome-based endeavours to yield fruitful results on the ground. Stressing on time-bound redressal of public concerns, Mir advised the Public representatives and officers to make coordinated efforts to ensure that the genuine issues of the public are redressed in a time-bound manner to mitigate their sufferings.
Mir claimed that Jammu and Kashmir Delimitation Commission’s draft report has evoked strong criticism and objections from political parties across the spectrum, including some of the Commission’s associate members. The majority of the political parties in Jammu and Kashmir have challenged the report for ignoring the all settled norms. “Population criteria is an essential component to be followed in a delimitation report. Mir said, noting that it has not followed a uniform yardstick in declaring new constituencies.“The new constituencies carved out to contradict the basic principle followed in the old ones. He said that a different yardstick has been followed in different areas and connectivity and contiguity has been totally ignored in the demarcation of constituencies. The Commission has proposed major changes in the Anantnag parliamentary seat by removing Pulwama and Shopian and adding Poonch and Rajouri. Surprisingly, the Shopian area, which connects Poonch and Rajouri via Mughal Road, has been included in Srinagar.
BJP came to power by promising to change the face of J&K. However, the party has failed to rise to the expectations of people of J&K. Be it the water project or Smart City, allegations of mismanagement have surfaced and the BJP has not been able to answer any to the satisfaction of the people,” he said. He said the BJP has taken several anti-people decisions which the Congress has strongly opposed.“The Congress has protested and held agitations against several projects which were not in the interest of people,” he said. “The BJP had promised to bring 24 X 7 water and power supply to people of J&K. It imposed and increased the water tax but has failed to ensure regularwater supply to rural areas.Prominent who attended and addressed include Shakeel Mir, masood Adv, Sajad Taraq, Pushvinder Gupta,prof MK Waqar, Rajesh Bittu, Zahid Malik,Bal Krishan Sharma, Rajesh Sharma Kushwant Iftkar Dar, Vijay Guru, Mustaq Ahmed, Suraj Parkash, Prithvi Raj, Adv. Zahid Malik, Babu Azam, Rattan Pal, Anil Chopra, Ashraf Katrya, Manju Shah, Zavaid Bagum, Fareed Akhter, Bashir Shall, Shamsher ZEO,
JKPCC Working President Raman Bhalla in his address pledged to work and function under the ambit and provisions of Indian National Congress and undertake to work at the grass root level to strengthen the party. He lauded the party workers for their dedicated efforts in reaching up to the common people during the Corona Virus pandemic, lockdown and asked them to further galvanize their efforts in the multi-dimensional fields, particularly post-Covid period when the whole socio-economic structure of the common masses was badly hit and every unit of population require to overhaul itself.
JKPCC Working President Bhalla blamed the Delimitation Commission for ignoring the parameters of population and geography. “Parameters like population for an assembly seat or geography of hilly terrain have been ignored. This draft report is a kind of devastation for Jammu and Kashmir,” he alleged.“The commission made Rajouri and Poonch part of Anantnag constituency fully knowing that they are two regions separated by the mighty Pir Panchal. For six months, there’s no connectivity at all,” he said. He added that the addition of Poonch and Rajouri to the Anantnag seat would increase the problems of people from the Pir Panchal regions.So people from those places will have to reach Anantnag to meet their representative. This has been done with Poonch and Mendhar and Surankote. Bhalla also objected to the draft report saying that the hilly terrain parameter has been ignored by the commission. “People of Rajouri and Poonch live in hilly terrain and Anantnag is too far from both these districts, which means a bigger problem for the people,” he said.
JKPCC Working President Bhalla added that the people of J&K have witnessed worst in absence of Congress Government. He alleged that present dispensation was responsible for worst ever sufferings of common man.He said that anti-youth policies of BJP at Centre and J&K have led to disappointment, mistrust and alienation among youth, as the BJP Government has utterly failed to fulfil their commitment, genuine urges and aspirations of youth. Accusing the Government of failing to solve day to day problems of the common people, he said that miseries of the people have been increased manifold after formation of this BJP led NDA regime.
JKPCC Working President lashed out at BJP and Modi Government for fleecing the common man through tax terrorism and playing the politics of hatred in the society which is dangerous for the pluralistic society.He said that huge assets and infrastructure created by previous Governments have been put on sale by the Modi Government besides making the life of common people miserable through heavy taxes. “BJP has nothing to offer to the people of J&K except divert their attention through their divisive & diversionary mode of politics,” he said and asked the people to reject BJP and the opportunistic forces dancing to the tune of BJP for the sake of individual favour or lust of power.
JKPCC Working President Bhalla said that the wrong economic policies of Modi Government have derailed the robust economy of the country handed over to it by the previous UPA Government, leading to unprecedented hike and large scale unemployment in the Country. The people are facing the brunt of the huge taxes as the Modi Government is passing on the burden to the common people, he added.He said that people of Jammu and Kashmir have been deprived of their identity status and rights due to arbitrary decision of downgrading of historic Dogra State for which people should punish BJP through their power of ballot. The jobs, lands and resources of the people of J&K have been offered to outside people at the cost of locals and youth who are without jobs.Bhalla expressed serious concern over the various issues especially the joblessness and inflation and said Congress Party won’t compromise on people problems, it will continue fight against the Centre’s wrong policies towards the people at all levels. He asked the people to oppose the wrong policies of the BJP and force the Government through democratic means to shun its anti-people, anti-poor and anti-youth policies.
JKPCC Chief Spokesman Ravinder Sharma maintained that it is unfortunate that the Government of India seems to have misplaced priorities for Jammu and Kashmir. Unfortunately, one fails to understand the reasons for the delay in the decisions of urgent nature when it comes to J&K,” he said. He observed that people in J&K are badly reeling under severe pressure of economic depression caused due to their wrong policies.Administratively also the people in J&K feel suffocated and are waiting eagerly for a democratically elected government to address their sufferings. But the people at the helm in Delhi seem to be least bothered about these important public issues and are instead adding to their woes by ignoring them under serious crisis,” he added.He said that the lack of will in the Government has pushed the core Sectors to the extreme levels of insignificance. “I believe the bureaucratic set-up should help strengthen the democratic institutions at the grassroots level if they really want to serve the people in J&K,” he remarked.
Ashok Sharma in his address claimed that callous attitude of BJP Govt amidst scores of anti-people decisions in J&K, people have realized that they have been exploited to the hilt by BJP Government.He said that the era of emotive politics is over and indifferent and apathetic attitude of the BJP Govt failed to improve and implement its developmental plans in letter and spirit on the ground,” he remarked.He said that development in all the regions and sub regions of J&K, urban and rural areas alike, has become a big casualty due to self centric approach of govt who are unfortunately again trying to hoodwink the public opinion by making false and misleading promises and indulging in emotive politics. Terming Congress Party as a dependable political platform for the people of J&K, Sharma said assuaging socio-economic and political aspirations of the people and undertaking development on a massive scale holds key to steer J&K to peace and prosperity.
District President, DDC VC and former Minister Shabir Khan said that BJP which claims to be the champion of Jammu people has betrayed the mandate of the people by taking U-turn on all vital commitments made with the people of the State, especially Jammu region during elections.“The Government is not performing according to the aspirations of people. The farmers, business community, traders, students are totally fed up with this non-performing Government, which has failed on all fronts whether it is providing basic facilities to the people or paying timely wages to the daily wagers working in various departments of the State or checking price hike of essential commodities,” he said.
