Bashir Assad
JAMMU, Jan 20: With the arrival of all political heavy weights, the winter capital has finally become a political hotbed and the headquarters of all political parties wear a festive look though the Srinagar headquarters of these parties are completely deserted and out of bounds for the people now.
Though political activities start with the opening of annual darbar move in Jammu, however, this year that was missing as most of the Kashmir based political stalwarts chose to stay back in Srinagar for election campaigning. Now as the whole Kashmir valley is enveloped by a thick layer of snow, the political parties suspended their activities and their leaders have started arriving in Jammu.
Moreover, the budget session of the State legislature is to commence from February 10, the legislators including the senior leaders have landed in Jammu.
Senior PDP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister, Muzaffar Hussain Baigh who is in-charge of the party for South and Central Kashmir Parliamentary constituencies has also arrived in Jammu and PDP President Mehbooba Mufti is likely to land in Jammu within next few days.
CPI(M) State Secretary, MY Tarigami has also reached Jammu and his friend and PDF chairman Hakim Mohammad Yasin who had gone to perform Umrah has also arrived here and the duo has started their activities.
Though some Ministers of the ruling coalition are still in Kashmir, however, they have sighed relief because of the suspension of political activities by opposition PDP and are expected to reach here permanently in a day or two.
If the sources are to be believed, the opposition PDP has started devising strategy for the budget session commencing from February 10 to highlight the failures of the Omar Abdullah led coalition Government.
A party insider told Early Times today that the party has decided to launch a very scathing offensive against the coalition Ministers particularly the Kashmir based Congress Ministers in terms of corruption charges, embezzlements and scandals.
"We will not spare anyone among them now, they have looted the state exchequer and have amazed wealth like anything, they (NC-Congress) are two faces of the same coin, they are both on our radar," said a PDP legislator.
He said the only achievement of this Government was corruption, embezzlement and misappropriation of public money. "They are both equally responsible for the economic and political crisis-the state is passing through," said the legislator.
Another senior PDP leader told Early Times that there were lot of "issues" which needed to be raised in the Assembly with "full strength".
While categorizing these issues the senior PDP leader said corruption cases against the Ministers, erosion of democratic institutions, non governance, unemployment, backdoor appointments, misappropriation of public money under Centrally Sponsored Schemes and other related issues are likely to dominate the session.
The poor education standard in Government schools may also rock the Assembly as a senior PDP leader Nizamuddin Bhat is likely to give a call attention motion on the issue.
"If we conduct a surprise survey of students enrolled in schools, I am sure that more than 60% schools will not have the requisite strength and proper accommodation.
The Government will have to close more than 1000 schools" Bhat told Early Times. Bhat said that SSA and RMSA despite having enough funds has not yielded dividends in J&K and most of the money is going waste due to commercialization at execution level. He said the curriculum has not been reviewed.
'The standard of teachers has not been raised nor is infrastructure adequate to facilitate quality education. Unfortunately the talent at all levels is not harnessed properly, observed Bhat.
For another PDP leader and MLA Darhal, Choudhary Zulfkar Ali, non functioning of Statuary bodies like under staff State Accountability Commission and State Vigilance Commission are the issues of major public concern. Zulfkar said that failure of the Cabinet Sub Committee constituted to examine Justice Sageer Committee recommendations on Centre-State relationship and its reconstitution as a delay delaying tactic, Non-Implementation of Prime Minister's Working Groups recommendations on various socio-political, regional and economic aspects of the Jammu and Kashmir issue are the issues of primary importance. |
