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| No resting on laurels Omar should improve governance | | | If not for anything else the Omar Abdullah led Government can take the credit for three things during its four-year rule.First it was the Government's success in completing the Panchayat elections after a gap of 23 years.The bigger credit goes to the ruling coalition that the Panchayat elections,held during 2011,was incident free and witnessed large participation from people in Jammu and Kashmir despite the call for poll boycott given by the separatists.Secondly,the ruling coalition can claim credit for ensuring marked decline in the activities and violence of militants.In fact during the last four years the state remained from from a major armed strike by the militants,including Fidayeen attacks.Thirdly,the alliance between the Congress and the National Conference weathered many a storms but remained in tact.Whether it was the outcome of compulsion or convenience the two sides agreed to share power and the credit for this went to Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi who did not want to alter the current political arrangement.Yes,if the Valley witnessed five summer months of civil strike in 2010,in which 120 people were killed in police action,it was an aberration that left bitter taste in peoples' mouth.
However,despite these positive points the Omar led Government became a symbol of misgovernance where those who matter in running the administration had no control on corrupt people and corrupt practices.Notwithstanding the fact that the centre opened the strings of its purse to provide heavy financial aid to Jammu and Kashmir the state Government failed to tackle,not to speak of resolving,the problem of unemployment.The Government framed and reframed its employment policies still it could not reduce the number of educated youths registered in the employment exchanges.The figure continues to swell and it has crossed six lakh.As far as resolving shortage of electricity and drinking water the state witnessed severe power and drinking water crisis forcing people to remain without power supply from four to eight hours a day.The ruling coalition's record has been dismal as far as the development in the industrial sector is concerned.The NC led Government failed to attract private investment in the industrial sector.And those private industrialists who had started setting up units in Jammu and Kashmir felt frustrated with the red tape and corrupt practices in the Government offices and about half a dozen entrepreneurs abandoned their plan on opening units in the state.
Now that the next Assembly elections are due in 2014 the ruling coalition has to initiate measures for consolidating whatever gains it had achieved.Not only this its has to introduce measures which could encourage people to have faith and confidence in the NC-Congress coalition rule that is needed for regaining power.Both the Congress and the NC are plagued by internal dissensions and first of all the two have to learn to coexist and then set their houses in order.If the Congress claims that it has become a Government maker in the sense that without its support neither the NC nor the PDP can form the Government,it can sustain this claim only if its performance in the next Assembly election is a repeat of 2002 or 2008 poll results.If the Congress wins seven to ten seats it may no longer be in a position t o be a Government maker.
Hence it has to end the prolonged tussle between the loyalists and the dissidents and goad and guide the NC leadership to improve governance.And if the NC led Government completes elections to the District Development Councils and the Urban Local Bodies within the current year it will be another feather in Omar's cap.Omar should initiate steps that could resolve various pending problems in the state and he can do that if he stops wasting time on raking up lifting of AFSPA from the state and if he stops touching extraneous issues.Let him address the real issues pertaining to people if he wants to head the Government again. |
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