Recognizing Punjabi Language as one of official languages in J&K on top agenda: Bukhari

STATE TIMES NEWS

JAMMU: Apni Party President, Syed Mohammed Altaf Bukhari on Tuesday said that recognizing Punjabi language as one of official languages in Jammu and Kashmir is on top agenda of his Party.
“It is on our agenda to recognize Punjabi language as one of the official languages in Jammu and Kashmir. The language has a huge contribution and it is spoken by people from all the communities in most regions of Jammu and Kashmir,” said Altaf Bukhari, speaking at a joining program here at Gandhi Nagar, Jammu.
The program was organized by Women Wing, Provincial President, Jammu, Pavneet Kour.
In presence of the Apni Party President, prominent Sikh Community social activist Inderpal Singh with his supporters Surinder Singh, Ranjit Singh, Bila Pardan, Paramjit Singh, Bachan Kumar, Ajit Singh and others joined the Apni Party.
They were welcomed into the party folds by the Party President.
While welcoming the new entrants into the Party fold, Altaf Bukhari hoped that their joining would strengthen the Party at the ground level, and in future too, the people from all walks of life will continue to join the Party.
Speaking on the occasion, he said that the issues of the Sikh Community will be resolved by the Party and no one will be left to suffer with no representation.
Referring to the demand of recognizing Punjabi language as official languages, he assured the new entrants and other leaders of Sikh Community that it is in their top priority to recognize Punjabi language as one of the official languages in Jammu and Kashmir.
He recalled the contribution of the language in Jammu and Kashmir in literature, and culture having historical traces.
He also appealed to the Govt to give representation to the Sikh Community members from each region in the Legislative Assembly.
“Apni Party is committed to work for all the communities for their social, economic, and political upliftment by providing them equal representation,” he said.
He appealed to the parents that they shall teach their children Punjabi language so that it can be revived as per the wishes of the community, beside other languages.
Elaborating how the Apni Party was founded, he recalled that his Party was founded when the traditional political parties left the people of Jammu and Kashmir in the atmosphere of hopelessness following the abrogation of Art 370 and Art 35A.
He further stated that “At the time when other parties were not ready to represent the people, the Apni Party moved forward to keep J&K united and represented the people even after facing baseless allegations. Accordingly, we went to Delhi and met the Prime Minister of India as well as the Union Home Minister to highlight the concerns of the general masses.”
He further stated that his Party represented the people in Delhi so that the emerging issues could be resolved following the abrogation of Art 370 and Art 35A.
“Therefore, his Party was able to get protection of land and jobs for the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.
As far as the concerns of the people regarding deepening electricity crisis, he said that his Party had raised the issue following which the Lt Governor of J&K Manoj Sinha took initiative to resolve the issue and accordingly, held a meeting to purchase electricity to resolve the issue of electricity shortage.