Jammu: Former Minister and senior Congress leader, Raman Bhalla on Wednesday claimed that political uncertainty in J&K has resulted in development deficit in every nook and corner especially in Jammu region.He said that general public in every Assembly segment has been deprived of the basic facilities. The development works which were started during the Congress regime were abandoned while several others initiated during just previous regime were facing rough weather under Governor Rule. The public has remained the main sufferer, he added.
Governance is the continuing process and the projects taken in hand for the public welfare by any Government should be continued ahead which ever Government takes over later. He said Centre claims having provided huge funds to J&K during past several years but the said amount has not been properly utilized. Bhalla claimed that political uncertainty in J&K during last over four years has remained the major cause behind the development deficit. He said consistency in the governance is crucial factor for the better growth and development.
He stressed for the projection of local public issues at the constituency and block level and said that public feed back over the performance of Governor’s Administration vital for making new ground for the party.He said a popular political Government is soul of democracy. “A Governor Rule can never be its substitute. Many public issues remained unattended during past five years in J&K. The burning issues of the people from remote and border remained unaddressed under present Administration. The Congress activists at grass root level must become eyes and ears of the public and should forcefully project these issues, Bhalla added.
While addressing a public meeting, the former minister said that majority of people maintained that no new developments but only facelifts of previous works were done in the area, whereas, untold stories of neglect were uttered by border firing victims.“BJP was in power at the Centre and in the erstwhile J&K State too, it was easy for the party to forward issues of common masses through their Government in the State to the Union Ministry concerned, for mitigating the sufferings of people but they took them casually,” Bhalla said.
He pointed out that there was total chaos and confusion among people as BJP leadership has failed to remove peoples’ apprehensions. “On the one hand, there is complete uncertainty in J&K, while on the other hand people are confronting with failure of the administration to solve day today problems”, he said, adding that most parts of the city are facing scarcity of potable water and power and dilapidated condition of lanes. He blamed BJP for betraying the people of Jammu on the issue of statehood and misleading the people on various emotive issues. He asserted that BJP Government has betrayed people of Jammu by reducing status of a state to union territory and Govt is also not coming clear on many issues. He said that only Congress is a secular party and never believes in caste, creed and colour. He claimed that it is only Congress which can keep the whole J&K united.