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| Low turnout speaks of alienation: Mufti | | |
Early Times Report
Srinagar, May 01 – Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has accused the National Conference-led Government of pushing the State back into the gloomy era of cynicism, despair and alienation. “Lacking both in a political agenda and a guiding principle for governance, the present Government has only brought disappointment and deprivation with it,” he said.
Addressing separate conventions of the PDP workers at Hazratbal and Mehjoor Nagar today, Sayeed said the atmosphere of relaxation and hopefulness that was visible in the State after the 2002 assembly elections is disappointingly being fast replaced by growing skepticism and discontent because of the present Government’s failure on all counts. “Even though people had participated much enthusiastically in 2008 assembly elections as compared to 2002, the voter turnout has phenomenally declined in the ongoing Parliamentary polls,” he said.
Sayeed said there was a perceptible change in the State’s ground situation between 2002 and 2005 with an increasing sense of security, pro-people reconciliatory measures, focused economic development, growing participation of the people in democratic processes and swelling tourist arrivals. “But, unfortunately, while with the change of guard in 2005, the positively changing situation started showing signs of reversal, with the appearance of the present Government, the situation seems to be heading towards complete turn-around towards the worst,” he said and added that the peace process has already taken a back seat, strong-arm tactics has replaced the reconciliation process, deliberate media hype is being given to infiltration levels, sense of insecurity is back, development has come to a standstill, power crisis is looming, unemployment is growing and tourist arrivals have almost become negligible. “In such a gloomy scenario, the people’s disillusionment with the democratic processes and institutions is bound to escalate,” he said.
Expressing concern over the plight of the people associated with tourism and handicraft trade, Sayeed said while the sharp decline in tourist arrivals to the Valley has unnerved almost every section of the society, the global economic recession has set a blow to the handicraft industry. He said the Government must formulate a market intervention scheme to support the people associated with the handicraft sector who were yet to come out of the shock of ban on Shahtoosh trade.
PDP candidate for Srinagar parliamentary constituency Moulvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari and PDP leaders Tariq Hameed Karra, Abdul Hamid, Abdul Rashid Kabuli, Parvez Ahmad and Asiya Naqash also addressed the conventions.
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