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| Broaden party base: Azad tells party men | | Welcomes SC decision on Mughal road | | Jammu: july 27
Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad today called upon the Congress workers to reinforce the party at all levels, exuding the confidence that under the ‘dynamic leadership’ of Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh, the Congress would further strengthen its support base in Jammu & Kashmir.
Addressing a day-long convention of the party functionaries of Jammu division here this afternoon, Azad said that Congress being a secular, nationalist and people centric party would create a niche and prominent place for itself in the state amidst host of other political parties with divergent ideologies. He said this could be done through service to people and taking all sections of the society along. He said the Congress has a glorious history of service to people and asked the party workers to follow the footsteps of the great leaders of the Congress had produced in the country.
Referring to today’s convention, Azad said that such interactions provide opportunity to fine tune the party strategy and its policies and programmes. He said district conventions were recently held in Kashmir valley and would be organized soon in Jammu division also. He asked Congress activists to fan out in their areas and apprise the people about the achievements. He thanked the people of the state for supporting the Congress party in 2002 assembly elections and hoped that keeping in view the exceptional performance, secular and nationalist credentials and pro-people policies of the government, the people of the state would support the Congress party in future as well. He said there was a historic opportunity for Congress activists to strengthen the party and serve the people.
Chief Minister said that with close coordination between the state and the central governments, it was possible for the first time during the past 60 years that a three-pronged strategy has been adopted to simultaneously address political, economic and social issues. In this connection, he referred to the dialogue between India and Pakistan on one hand and between centre and mainstream parties as well as others in Jammu and Kashmir on the other. He said leaders representing all shades of opinion in the state participated in the three Round Table Conferences convened by the Prime Minister. He said leaders with divergent views met together and expressed their views. He said although dialogue process with Pakistan had slowed down for the last 6 months owing to the internal situation of Pakistan, but he was hopeful that the events would not be allowed to adversely affect the process.
Azad welcomed the Supreme Court decision to allow the construction of the Mughal Road, saying lot of headway had been made in the past year and a half to remove bottleneck in the construction of this important road link. He said the Empowerment Committee constituted by the Supreme Court visited the state and the government put forward its argument before the Committee. He said a PIL was also fought in the Supreme Court. He said, he was thankful to the Supreme Court bench headed by the Chief Justice for clearing the Mughal Road project and said that all hindrances in the construction of the road were now clear. He said his government would fulfill all the conditions which have been laid down by the Supreme Court.
The Chief Minister said that there were many firsts to the credit of his government including enacting legislation for down sizing of council of ministry, giving teeth to anti-corruption laws, passing of anti-defection law to ensure political stability and say go bye to the politics of Aya Ram Gaya Ram. He said J&K was the only place in the world where ill-gotten property of the corrupt officials was confiscated and investigation in 100 such cases was going on. He said healthy work culture had been another hallmark of his government.
Azad said a carrot and stick policy has been adopted whereunder honest and performing officials with proven integrity were being encouraged and those resorting to corrupt practices and non-performers dealt with under the law. He said those showing exemplary performance in infrastructure development would be given awards from the ensuing Independence Day.
The Chief Minister said that for effective supervision, physical monitoring and verification of development works, the institution of additional district development commissioner was created. He said with this, the complaints of bad quality of works came down by 66% in the first 6 months of the present government.
The JKPCC President and Education Minister, Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed also addressed the convention and said that people of the state have suffered immensely due to the past 18 years of militancy. He said the Congress workers also had to face many hardships during this period and appreciated their firm resolve in keeping the party flag high in the state, despite the challenging situation.
Peerzada had a special word of praise for the people of Jammu who, he said received the migrants from Kashmir and other areas of the state with open arms. He said Jammu and Kashmir has glorious traditions of secularism, amity and brotherhood and this was the reason that Mahatma Gandhi had seen a ray of hope in Kashmir in 1947.
He said, “we believe in dialogue process to settle all issues amicably by sitting across the table”. He also referred to opening up of Srinagar-Muzaffarabad and Poonch-Rawalakote routes and other CBMs taken by the Congress led UPA government.
Peerzada said that it was the Government’s firm resolve to ensure equitable and balanced development of all the regions and areas of the state. He said the impact of this policy was already visible on ground..
Union Minister for Water Resources Prof Saif-ud-Din Soz, Minister for Health and Medical Education Mangat Ram Sharma, MPs Madan Lal Sharma and Ch. Lal Singh, Minister for R&B Gulchain Singh Charak, Minister for Rural Development Jugal Kishore Sharma and Minister of State for Higher Education Mr. Aijaz Ahmad Khan also addressed the Convention and urged the party workers to spread the message of the Congress across the state.
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