STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: People are going through tough times due to indifferent attitude of the government as the quota of ration and other essential commodities is being denied. Soaring prices have made the life of people extremely difficult and the government should immediately ensure that people get their share of ration.
This was stated by former Minister and senior Congress leader Raman Bhalla while addressing a public gathering in continuance with his mass contact programme to listen to grievances of people of area at Block Satwari (14) Gandhi Nagar Jammu.
The programme was organized by Block President and Ex-Sarpanch Amrit Bali. District Urban President Anil Chopra, R.K Khajuria, B.B Gupta, Sunil Slathia, Vishal Singh Chadak, Avtar Singh Shanty, Rakesh Singh, Gurbachan Kour, Advocate Roshan Lal, Sampuran Singh, Varinder Singh, Bal Krishan, Kapoor Singh, Attinder Singh and Joginder Kumar were also present.
“Government is shying away from its duty to conduct urban local body and Panchayat elections. Formation of ULBs are must to empower the people of urban areas”, he said and added that in a democratic system it was necessary to make representative character of all democratic institutions to ensure people’s participation in these institutions. He said that the Centre has blocked grants worth crores for urban development because the State Government has failed to constitute duly elected local bodies. “Priority of this regime is not to empower people by strengthening democratic institutions but those at the helm of the affairs want to accomplish their nefarious designs by controlling such institutions through undemocratic means”, he observed and cautioned that such attitude of the ruling party will prove disastrous for the State. “With its assiduous efforts Congress had restored faith of the people in democracy and democratic institutions but this regime during last two years has again shattered people’s faith”, he maintained. He called upon party cadre to prepare for Panchayat elections and lambasted the government for playing with the real spirit of 73rd amendment and local self-government concept.
He accused BJP-PDP coalition government of having failed to address the problems of the people since they (BJP-PDP) joined hands in J&K.
While the BJP cheated people of Jammu, the people of Kashmir were cheated by the PDP,” Bhalla said adding that more than two years have passed but they have failed to fulfill any of the promises, be it the problems faced by the border residents, be it the problems faced by the farmers, be it the problems of refugees and Kashmiri Pandits, this government has done nothing to address these problems.
Former Minister maintained that coalition Government has miserably failed to heal the physical, psychological and emotional wounds inflicted by militancy, to restore the rule of law in Jammu and Kashmir State, to complete the revival of the political process which was begun by the recently concluded elections, and to request the Government of India to initiate and hold, sincerely and seriously, wide ranging consultations and dialogue, without conditions, with the members of the legislature and other segments of public opinion in all the three regions of the State, to evolve a broad-based consensus on restoration of peace with honour in the State.
Terming the promises made by PDP-BJP government as “mere bluffs”, Bhalla said that voters are fed up with the “sheer opportunism” of these two parties.
