Early Times Report
Jammu, Apr 9: Even as educated, unemployed youth in the state crave for avenues to earn livelihood, a group of politicians in league with an NGO in Kashmir, have allegedly minted millions of rupees overnight by organizing a discussion on the Kashmiri youth.
The NGO, run by the family-affiliated to a mainstream political party, in league with some politicians and a retired bureaucrat, organized a discussion on Kashmiri youth on April 8, at a fashionable hotel overlooking Dal Lake in Srinagar.
Sources said apart from getting assistance from one political party in the opposition, the NGO collected huge funds to organize the event and told the financers that guests would need to be paid big fee.
Sources said most of the funds were collected "without proper receipts or deposit of such aid in bank accounts." "A group of politicians had already gone in alliance with the NGO to distribute money among themselves," said a source privy to the deal adding that there was a need to probe the matter.
Sources said except for spending around Rs one lakh on the function, the rest of the money was shared as "booty by a particular lobby."
The event, where selected group of youth, mainly from rich families were invited as audience, saw a group of youth leaders from various political parties spending around two hours talking about Kashmir.
"It was not any open discussion but a scripted event where everyone spoke out of script written by the organizers in alliance with the guests," said one of the invitees, who left the discussion midway.
The discussion, held at five-star hotel, has drawn severe criticism on the social media.
"What is the fun of holding discussion on youth when only a selected few are invited to such fashionable shows, which give no result," said youth on Facebook.
The youth said there should be probe on holding of such events. A forum on Kashmiri youth has decided to file a formal complaint seeking probe into the "loot of money through such events and who all where benefitted."
"These events are not helping the youth but benefitting selected few to meet their personal monetary goals," the youth said.
Despite repeated attempts the organizers of the event couldn't be contacted for comments. |
