JAMMU: Charging the District Administration Udhampur with partisan posturing and openly promoting the political interests of BJP, Harsh Dev Singh JKNPP Chairman and former Minister today questioned the imposition of Section 144 CrPc in Bharnara village of Tehsil Majalta where a Panthers Party meeting was scheduled to be held. He said that more than 200 police men had been deployed in village Bharnara to thwart the political function which had been organized by three Panchayats including Bharnara, Dhamma and Jansal to felicitate Harsh Dev Singh for his contributions and his persistent struggle for the cause of the people even after ceasing to be MLA.
Accusing the Deputy Commissioner Udhampur of playing in the hands of some failed, corrupt disgruntled politicians, Harsh Dev Singh said that it was strange that a district head of administration should become a party to scuttle the democratic rights of opposition. He said that it happened for the first time that a felicitation functions organized by the local people of remote villages was interrupted and Section 144 of CrPC imposed. Heavy contingent of police threatened the localities including several former Sarpanches, Panches and prominent people to shelve the programme and even threatened to remove the tents and stage forcibly which was objected to by thousands of people forcing the police to beat a hasty retreat, he stated.
Flaying the blatant and brazan display of authoritarianism, Harsh urged upon the Governor to order a probe into the conduct of District administration Udhampur who at the behest of corrupt BJP Ministers caused harassment to the locals including former Sarpanches with threats of dire consequences in case they organized JKNPP functions. He said that the civil administration and police tried to sabotage the function on the dictations of their political masters and tried to subvert the democratic rights and aspirations of the people which needed to be probed.
Asserting that Panthers Party shall continue to oppose and expose the govt. for ill governance, political mismanagement, corruption and administrative breakdown, Singh said that JKNPP workers could not be cowed down by the nefarious designs of the corrupt politicians in the govt. He said that herculean efforts were required to straighten the dents inflicted upon Dogra pride by the said leaders and called upon the public to support Panthers Party for their own honour and dignity. He strongly denounced the govt. decision to give ex-gratia to the next of kins of Burhan Wani and Khalid Wani besides lambasting BJP for withdrawing over the issue of grant of State Subject Rights and Domicile Certificates to West Pak Refugees. He assured the public to continue his crusade for the cause of the people of Ramnagar Constituency in particular and Jammu region in general.
Among those who spoke on the occasion included Purshotam Parihar, Rajesh Sharma, Dharam Singh Bittu, Bodh Raj, Purshotam Singh, Sita Ram, Mohan Lal Gupta, Karan Singh, Raghubir Singh and Kewal Sharma.