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| Up for grab, jobs and goodies | | Project smile all: Flowers, roads, buildings, extensions | | Early Times Reporter
Jammu | Apr 2
For hundreds and thousands of contractual employees with various government departments, the first day of April was a day of blessing and the traditionally lampooning “April Fools Day”. The government has extended their term of contractual employment by another six months.
This was one of the several goodies up for the grab as the coalition government reaches out to the people with a slew of encouraging inducements and stimulations to keep them in good humour in the election year.
Till very recently, the political observers were looking towards the brightening prospects of the National Conference in view of the lack luster show of the coalition. Suddenly, the tide has started turning in a different direction. The sops had been calculated in a careful manner. Extending the services of thousands of employees by six months in April means allowing them to work till elections are over. This goes well in keeping as many families smiling when you ask for votes.
The government has already promised that 70,000 youths will get jobs this year as contract/ad hoc assignments in various official departments. Only the previous day, the Social Welfare Minister Abdul Ghani Vakil announced that 13,000 vacancies in his department will be filled up in the current month itself.
Not only this, the government has embarked on a massive development plank. It is infrastructure boom every where. This boom puts the upper crust of the society in a good mood and offers work for the working class. Around 50 different projects have been inaugurated and many others have become operational in the state after the budget session of the assembly ended in February. Health, electricity, water and education are the thrust areas of these projects.
The present state legislative assembly completes its six-year term in October this year; elections may be announced even before that. Once the election schedule is announced, ministers and legislators will get tied down to the model code of conduct that bars the government from announcing any major sops to the electorate to prevent unfair swings in the voting pattern.
Other projects inaugurated include Asia's largest tulip garden in summer capital Srinagar thrown open by United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi March 29.
Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad laid the foundation of an International Trade Centre at Pampore in the Kashmir valley March 17. Then on March 19, he inaugurated a proposed 200-bed hospital and a meeting hall in Dak Bungalow in Sopore, north Kashmir.
On the same day, he inaugurated a new Rs.280 million building for a state museum on the banks of the river Jhelum in Srinagar.
On March 22, Finance Minister Tariq Hamid Qarra announced a Rs.80 million Industrial Training Institute in Srinagar spread over more than 2.5 hectares of land. Public Health Engineering Minister Dilawar Mir March 24 sanctioned four water supply schemes in Lolab, north Kashmir.
However, opposition parties and many commoners say the tactics are crying foul.
'There is no merit in the series of announcements and inaugurations. They are inaugurating even old schemes and works just to fool people and woo them,' said the NC MLA
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president Ashok Khajuria said: 'While doing so, the ruling alliance has shown there is bankruptcy of ethics and is shamelessly carrying on with these pranks to dupe voters.' |
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