People In J&K Have No Forum For Grievances: Mehbooba Mufti

Lambasting the Lieutenant Governor’s administration for alleged public discontent, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti on Monday said Jammu and Kashmir today stands at a crossroads where people have neither any rights and nor any forum to present their grievances. She also hit out at the BJP for allegedly weaponising the pain and sufferings of the Kashmiri Pandits to garner support for its political objectives.

“While the public anger is simmering, the LG administration is busy in showcasing its phony achievements in order to justify what ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has done with Jammu and Kashmir,” Mehbooba said while meeting various deputations which called on her on the second day of her tour to Jammu.

The former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said the administration has only compounded the issues of general masses with its “red tapism, inertia and public discontent”.

“As result of this, Jammu and Kashmir today stands at a crossroads where citizens have neither any right, nor a forum to project their grievances,” she said.

Talking to a deputation of Kashmiri migrant employees, Mehbooba said while the BJP and its administration was weaponising the pain and sufferings of the community to garner support for its political objectives, it ignores their issues and grievances.

“It’s unfortunate that the community faced one of the worst times after migration during the last few years, right under the rule of those who criminalised their sufferings and politicised their pain in furtherance of their own communal agenda,” she said.

Mehbooba said the administration has miserably failed to instil a sense of security among the Kashmiri migrant community. She said the issues of Kashmiri Pandits need a compassionate and humanitarian approach. Instead, an arm-twisting approach is being adopted to muzzle their voice, she alleged.

The deputations, while highlighting their grievances, said the administration has selectively transferred some employees form Kashmir while others have been left at the mercy of god. Most of the families are without ration for several months and the new relief cases are pending approval. “The employees are protesting seeking transfer to safer places while the administration has withheld salaries of migrant employees in order to pressure them to return,” a delegation member said.

Responding to other deputations, Mehbooba said, “Corruption has touched new heights, while the competent and honest officers are pushed to the wall to ensure that the dictates from the party headquarters of the BJP are followed without any query or justification.” Even the local governance institutions, which the LG administration is showcasing as one of its greatest achievements, have been made redundant, she added.

Employees, unemployed youths, traders, industrialists, transporters, farmers and every other section of society is facing the brunt of the political blunder committed by the ruling dispensation just to satisfy its political ego, the PDP chief said. “We have to collectively fight back and struggle for restoration of our identity and dignity,” she said.

A deputation of Small Scale and Micro Industries Unit holders apprised the PDP chief about the administration’s claims to bring about an industrial revolution in Jammu and Kashmir. But the reality is that most of the industries were either being closed or seized by the banks due to non-payment of dues, it said. (PTI)