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| Attack on Jammu will disintegrate the state | | Jammu in Assembly | | Neha
JAMMU, Feb 22: The ongoing session of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislature would be remembered for years to come. The reason: This perhaps is the only session in its 65-year-old history in which not one but many Kashmiri lawmakers repeatedly accused the Government of being anti-Kashmir and pro-Jammu and pro-Ladakh. Some accused the Government directly and some indirectly. Some of them opposed the Government's decision on new administrative units on the ground that the Cabinet Sub-Committee on new administrative units ignored the genuine demands of people of different areas of the Valley and accorded a preferential treatment to Jammu province and Ladakh region. None of them recognized the fact that the area of Jammu province is two-time that of Kashmir and that Jammu province is highly underdeveloped.
Some condemned the State Government for giving a preferential treatment to Jammu province as far as the implementation of the Centrally-Sponsored Schemes was concerned. Some of the Centrally-Sponsored Schemes included Bad Pocket Development Plan (BPDP) and Backward Region Grant Funds (BRGF). Some took on the State Government for providing more ventilators to the Jammu's district and other hospitals, as compared to Kashmir. And on Friday, Independent MLA from Langate Abdul Rashid Sheikh asked New Delhi to quit Kashmir. The Government of India should "leave Kashmir while Ladakh has already been captured by China," he said during the Question Hour in the Legislative Assembly.
What provoked this anti-India legislator from Langate to ask New Delhi to quit Kashmir? He said there was uneven distribution of new Public Health Centres (PHC) in Jammu and Kashmir. To support his point he said that 676 new PHCs were announced by the Government of India of which only 246 PHCs had been sanctioned for Kashmir province, including Ladakh, which together have 50 Assembly constituencies, while 430 PHCs had been allotted to Jammu province, which has 37 Assembly constituencies. If the Government of India wants to discriminate in such a brazen manner with Kashmiris, it is better for them to leave Kashmir, he said. "If you have to continue discriminating with us this way, please leave Kashmir while Ladakh has already been captured by China," he, in fact, said.
All this shows that certain anti-Jammu elements have ganged up and unleashed a campaign against the Government that is being dubbed in Jammu province as Valley-centric. This is not the way to end bitterness between the regions. The negative attitude of the vested interests in Kashmir would only hasten the process of the state's disintegration. Ladakh has already snapped its ties with the Valley for all practical purpose and the manner in which certain Kashmir-based lawmakers conducted themselves in the Assembly would surely strengthen the hands of the votaries of the state's reorganization. In any case, it is time for the State Government to issue a white paper on what the successive Governments in the state did in Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh to develop them. |
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