SRINAGAR: A day after National Conference accused PDP-BJP coalition of ‘match fixing’ on the issue of rehabilitation of flood victims, Jammu and Kashmir Minister Altaf Bukhari on Wednesday hit back at the party, saying “it has always trivialised pain and woes of the people of Kashmir”.
“We do not need any political sermons from National Conference (NC) which remained totally indifferent and apathetic towards miseries and sufferings of the flood victims of Kashmir,” Bukhari, a senior leader of ruling PDP, said in a statement here.
On Monday, Bukhari had reacted sharply to the reported remarks of senior BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh that Rs 3,600 crore are enough for the rehabilitation of flood victims.
Although Singh clarified later that he was misquoted, National Conference took a note of the issue and accused the ruling coalition of “match fixing” on the rehabilitation of flood victims to hoodwink the people.
“As a fixed-match, a Cabinet Minister in the PDP-BJP government has opposed the Deputy Chief Minister’s statement and expressed shock. These theatrics cannot absolve the PDP-BJP Government of its unforgivable failure of ensuring the rehabilitation of thousands of flood victims,” NC working president and former chief minister Omar Abdullah had said.
In response, Bukhari today said, “National Conference regimes have always trivialised pain and woes of the people of Kashmir and unfortunately its leadership is yet to learn lessons from the results of its decades old politics of deceit and treachery.”
“Instead of making insensitive remarks, National Conference should have been doing some honest soul searching about how its government defectively responded to the September deluge,” he said, adding his party does not believe in “deceptive politics” and would always rise up to the occasion and speak bluntly in interest of the people of the state.
The minister alleged that NC continued to thrive on “uncertainty and chaotic atmosphere” and never ever tried to give a “serious thought to facilitate resolution of socio- political and economic issues facing the people of the state”.
“Times have changed and people of the state are enough mature to judge political gimmicks of NC. They are no more ready to accept its political deceit and apathetic approach.
Even if, for a moment, it is presumed that my and Nirmal Singh’s remarks were fixed statements, which they were not, does not it behove NC leadership to support the demand for justified compensation for flood victims, if it claims to be serious for their rehabilitation?”
Bukhari said Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed led government is committed to rehabilitate the flood-affected people of the State and the government will ensure that all flood victims receive genuine compensation against the losses suffered by them last year.
Besides working for rehabilitation of flood victims, the government is pursuing a comprehensive flood management plan with the Central Government to initiate permanent protection measures from impending threat of floods, he said.