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| People to watch role of Jammu legislators in budget session | | Burning Issues | | Neha
Jammu, Feb 21: A month-long budget session of J&K Assembly would commence on Thursday. It is going to be a very stormy session. There are issues and issues which the opposition will rake up to expose the NC-Congress coalition government. It is expected that the PDP, which has over the period become quite pro-active, would try its level best to corner the state government and lower its position in the estimation of the people of Kashmir and the issues it is likely to up would be undoubtedly emotional. People want the opposition to play an effective role this time because things in the state have turned extremely ugly and gloomy. There appears in the state no government worth its name, with many a minister, including Chief Minister, being held responsible for the prevailing chaos, anarchy, political uncertainty and politics of "loot and plunder".
As for the neglected, marginalized, oppressed and suppressed people of Jammu province, they would want their legislators, barring those belonging to Congress and NC, to play an active and positive role in the assembly and defend and promote their legitimate rights and interests. There are many burning issues in the Jammu province, which the people would want their legislators to rake up and force the government to resolve them to their satisfaction.
There is the issue of discrimination. Six of the most recent glaring examples are (1) the withdrawal of the order under which the Dogras were to obtain Dogra certificate for availing themselves of certain relaxations in the rules governing recruitment to central paramilitary forces, including CRPF, (2) total exclusion of Jammu youth from the selected list of assistant information officers, (3) grant of an additional package of over 350 crores for Dal Lake and exclusion of the Mansar and Surinsar Lakes in Jammu from the said central package, (4) approval of a bitumen thickness of 3 inches (75 MM) for Kashmir region roads and just 20 mm thickness for Jammu roads to be constructed and upgraded under the Prime Minister Gramin Sadak Yojna (PMGSY), (5) announcement of 16 new urban local bodies, with Kashmir getting 12 and Jammu just 4, and (6) increase in the wards of 76 existing urban local bodies in Kashmir to the tune of 105 and Jammu only 40. The increase in the number of urban local bodies as well as wards were announced by the Housing and Urban Development Department vide two SROs No. 46, dated January 30, 2012, and February 9, 2012 only a couple of days before the state cabinet decided to hold civic polls in April. This department is under the control of a Jammu-based Congress minister.
Other burning issues in Jammu province include the issue of delimitation; the failure of the Congress to fulfill the promises it made in 2002 and 2008, including the promise of setting up of a regional council in Jammu; rationalization of administrative units in Jammu province; gross neglect of Jammu in almost all the spheres and all the sectors, including service sector and agriculture, sericulture, horticulture, tourism, power generation, industry and so on. Yet another issue that has been agitating the minds of the people of Jammu province is the ulterior move on the part of the votaries of Greater Kashmir to divide Jammu province along Chenab River on communal lines.
In other words, there are many burning issues in Jammu province, including the issues of empowerment, unity and integrity of Jammu province, unity and integrity of the country and the various ideological issues. People of Jammu would want their representatives in the assembly not only to defeat the protagonists of autonomy, self-rule and greater Kashmir, but they would also want the state government in general and Jammu ministers in particular, to end the discriminatory policies towards Jammu province and compensate it for the losses it has suffered thus far at the hands of the successive Kashmiri-dominated and Valley-centric governments in the state, backed to the hilt by the Congress as it has been presently doing. It is only proper to say that Jammu Congress ministers are acting as representatives of Kashmir and doing all that they could to further harm Jammu.
People of Jammu would watch and scrutinise the role of their representatives in the budget session. It is time for them to rise to the occasion and come up to the expectations of their constituencies. It is an invaluable opportunity for them to win back their trust. Will they or will they not? Let's wait and see. |
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