STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Former Minister and senior National Conference leader Ajay Kumar Sadhotra on Monday lashed out at the BJP for dilly dallying elections to Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, saying that the saffron party was scared of the people due to its wrong policies, primarily downgrading the state into a Union Territory. “On the face of stiff resistance by the people and their alienation in the wake of 2019 political developments, the BJP is in a state of quandary due to imminent defeat and therefore it has been depriving the electors their right to choose their own government”, Sadhotra said while addressing Public Meeting at Thathar in Jammu North Assembly Constituency.
Sadhotra said the hollow promises made by the BJP to justify its 2019 actions have fallen flat, as the state has not only lost its identity but the people stand deprived of development, economic dividends and particularly the employment to educated unemployed besides skilled and unskilled workforce. He said Jammu and Kashmir is reeling under high degree of inflation, with prices of essentials skyrocketing and development taking a huge dip over the years. The people are running helter-skelter for seeking redressal to their grievances with power and drinking water supply remaining a major irritant. In these hot and humid summers, the electricity is continuing to play truant for hours together which in turn impacts the supply of tap water to the residents. Jammu and its peripheral areas together with the rural and urban pockets of the region are facing acute water and power crisis, he added. Sadhotra said that Jammu and Kashmir seems to be the last and the least priority for the Centre, which has pushed it to morass. What could be the extreme of lackadaisical attitude than that the Lieutenant Governor is being assisted by just one Advisor, he asked, saying the state is being virtually run by the bureaucrats. The people have no access to the government to register their grievances, he said, adding that bureaucratic dispensation is always detrimental to public interest. The former minister said that the gubernatorial arrangement is no alternative to popular government and the people are being deprived of their legitimate democratic right because the BJP has no prospect of getting any space in the public life. In fact, he said, the saffron party is poised to have a huge electoral debacle due to its anti people and anti-J&K policies that have pushed all segments of the society in both the regions and the sub-regions to the wall. The unemployed educated youth are the worst sufferers, he added.
Sadhotra exhorted the National Conference workers to intensify their mass outreach programme and identify the problems of the problems so that these can be voiced vehemently. He said the party has a track record of serving the people which it will continue braving all the challenges.
