Embarking on a whirlwind tour of Ramgarh and Bishnah Tehsils, Mr. Harsh Dev Singh Chairman JKNPP and former Minister took the cognizance of problems faced by the farmers, border dwellers and local youth who have had suffered neglect and deprivation at the hands of present regime during the highly critical times of corona pandemic and extremely slowed down economic activity. The NPP activists along with aggrieved farmers and youth led by Mr. Harsh Dev Singh and Mr. Yash Paul Kundal took out a procession in Ramgarh town and submitted a memorandum in the name of Lt. Governor through Tehsil Ramgarh relating to the issues of the local people of the area.
Addressing the gatherings at various places including Ramgarh, Majua and Bishnah, Mr. Harsh Dev Singh supported the cause of the farmers seeking MSP for their produce and launched a scathing attack on the govt for abandoning them during the ongoing crisis. “The farmers of the region had suffered a huge loss of two consecutive crops due to incessant rains, wind storms and other vagaries of weather but more than 70% peasants have not been paid any compensation until now. He further regretted that the farmers whose lands had been acquired by the government for Ring road construction were still looking for adequate compensation. “Acquiring land from the peasants at meagre prices narrates the sordid tale of the BJP robbing the due share of the aggrieved farmers. Why the ‘Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act’ (LARR Act of 2013) was not extended to the state of J&K post abrogation of Art 370?”, Harsh questioned. In view of the recent Agri bills passed in the Parliament without holding any debate, Mr. Singh sought that the said bills should be kept in abeyance as they had further aggravated the unrest among the farmers. The farming community is apprehensive about getting Minimum Support Price for their produce with a fear that they would become corporate slaves in the times to come, divulged Harsh. He asserted that 50% waiver on electricity and water bills which was recently announced by the Lt. Governor as measure of relief for the business and commercial housed should also be extended to the farming community of Jammu region.
Raising the issue of border youth in particular, Mr. Singh said that while the residents of areas adjoining International Border are entitled to reservation in government jobs as per the revised rules, the eligible youth continue to be harassed by the concerned officials in issuance of such certificates of Residents of International Border (RIB). The youth residing on IB are already feeling cheated as they are made to share the already existing 3% reservation for LoC residents without providing them separate quota or even enhancing the existing quota. And now the difficulties faced by them in getting all prescribed documents from revenue officials had made it almost impossible to get the RIB certificates. Similarly, the plight of the border dwellers remained unabated as they have been facing the wrath of border skirmishes. Big promises of 5 Marla plots and bunkers in safer zones failed to realize, Harsh maintained.
Mr. Yash Paul Kundal, while appealing to the people to support Panthers Party with open hearts, said that NPP was the only viable option for the people to liberate them from the clutches of discrimination and other miseries. “You have been severely marginalized by the BJP government and the Kashmir centric regime. Now it’s time to hold the hands of Panthers Party to come out from the political quagmire”, asserted Kundal.
Prominent among those who spoke on the occasion included Yash Paul Sharma, Surinder Chouhan, Amarjeet Singh, Talveer Singh; Babu Ram, retd. Lecturer, Kuldeep Singh, Satpaul Choudhary, Gurcharan Singh, Tarsem Singh, Sethi Choudhary besides others.