Jammu: Former Minister and senior Congress leader Raman Bhalla on Saturday said one year of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government has been an utter failure and a huge disappointment for the people of India in general and J&K in particular. He said the BJP government has failed on all parameters, including internal security, inflation, corruption, crime against women, plight of farmers, rights of Dalits and minorities. He accused the government of being indifferent about the schemes launched by the previous Congress government and of being disconnected with people.BJP has never tried to understand the basic problems of the people,” he said. Govt had promised to provide employment to youngsters but unemployment has further increased in the country. Government promised to increase farmers’ agricultural income but the Centre government neither increased the minimum support price (MSP) of the crops nor bought important crops in MSP list.
Decisions from scrapping Article 370 & 35A to bifurcating J&K State into two Union Territories and now new Domicile Law in J&K have badly bleed the sentiments of people of J&K.There is no employment opportunity for the youth now. If people from the rest of India come, they will take away our jobs.” It appeared that even those in the Jammu region who welcomed the Article 370 move were affected by the Modi government’s hidden xenophobic agenda.Govt promoted ‘Digital India’, saying that common service centres providing digital services to people were “rendering ‘anytime-anywhere connectivity’” to every citizen in villages through “optimal utilisation of information technology”. But he conveniently forgot to add that these services were hardly applicable to Jammu and Kashmir.It is quite clear that the backbone of a vibrant economy dependent on tourism, sale of apples, saffron, walnuts, shawls, carpets, etc., has been badly broken, and will take years to recuperate.
Bhalla said that the BJP government created controversies rather than solving the problems facing people of J&K. Government has failed on all fronts. It has failed to fulfill the expectations of the people of the country who gave it such a huge mandate,” Bhalla said.He said the Government was “anti-farmer and anti-youth” and thrived only on advertisements and announcements.“They only raise slogans, make announcements and hold events. They have done nothing for the farmers of the country or the youth. This Government is anti-farmer, anti-youth and has failed to fulfill its promise of creating two crore jobs per year,” he said.
After taking over, Modi had promised maximum governance and minimum government, Bhalla said adding that “one year later we see maximum arrogance and one man government.”He added that one year ago Modi said ‘Skill India’, but after one year we don’t see ‘Skill India’ but troubled and unemployed India. “One year ago, Modi promised turnaround of Indian economy. But, one year later we don’t have turnaround but a government of U-turns,” he further claimed.
Former Minister said that there is strong resentment among people of Jammu region towards BJP which has miserably failed to address even basic issues of the people of the area. Bhalla said that majority of people maintained that no new developments but only facelifts of previous works were done in the area.“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 J&K 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.
“Even after one year since Panchayat elections, the development activities in rural areas have come to a standstill due to non-availability of funds. Panchayats are virtually defunct and rural populace is crying for development,” Bhalla said. One year has lapsed after completion of election of ULB’s but but no visible change has been witnessed on ground. All the councilors of JMC irrespective of political affiliations are facing problem due to shortage of funds for developmental activities, he said. Neither Govt of India nor LG is serious about the release of funds in case Jammu Municipal Corporation. This is glaring example of discrimination with the people of Jammu. While people are still waiting for their concerns of basic needs such as jobs, housing, power, transport and water supply to be addressed, the government is using public money on events and celebrations,” he added. He said lack of direction and political will have compounded the perception of political uncertainty in the state whereas the government should have tried to provide a hope of inclusive development, reconciliation and peace.
Bhalla criticised the Government for ignoring common masses in the J&K and alleged that the present regime has totally lost its credibility due to its mis-governance and failure on all fronts. He regretted that people of the Jammu region were back stabbed by BJP leadership as the party has brazenly abandoned its core agenda and adopted indifferent approach towards problems of the masses. On the local issues of Jammu district, Bhalla regretted that ‘it is facing total neglect with not even a single new work taken up for execution during BJP rule.
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. He said that it is most unfortunate that the common people have no medium to raise their voice for their basic necessities due to the neglect of the BJP representatives. The people have to come on roads to express their anger and seek redressal of their genuine grievances.
Former Minister said that it is most unfortunate that Union Govt is more focused on political issues in J&K at a time when the whole country is battling for its survival and is under strict lockdown to stem the spread of deadly Coronavirus disease. This reflects government’s casual exercise carried out at the bureaucratic level without taking aspirations and expectations of people into consideration,” Bhalla said. He said J&K has a consumption-driven economy with 23% of its 44 lakh labour force deriving its livelihood from the trading sector and another 7% from the transport sector. Due to this double whammy of nested lockdowns and triple tragedy of the communication gag, logistical restrictions and demand shock, havoc has been unleashed to both these labour-intensive sectors of J&K. More than 10% of the labour force are government employees, which is the only sector where income is expected to remain comparatively stable. The remaining working population is mostly absorbed by the agriculture sector with dismal support from a limited private sector, added Bhalla.
Meanwhile fulfilling duties and responsibilities of leader of poor and down-trodden in this hour of crisis, former Minister on Saturday continued distributing Ration and other necessary items among needy and poor families of Gandhi Nagar Constituency .Today ration items distributed at Bahu Fort ,Press Morh, Bagh Mohalla and Kaccha Talab Prominent among those who accompanied Bhalla include Deewan Chand, Sahil Shavotra, Latish Sharma, Dev Raj, Rufi Pajgotra, Kundan Dalotra, Chaman Lal, Sher Singh beside others.
Bhalla said that it is most unfortunate that the common people have no medium to raise their voice for their basic necessities like water, power, healthcare and education due to no elected Govt in J&K. The people have to come on roads to express their anger and seek redressal of their genuine grievances even during Covid-19 lockdown.Lambasting Govt, Bhalla said that it has betrayed people of Jammu region as nothing has been done to solve their day to day problems. ” It is creating hype and plunging J&K into uncalled for controversies over issues which are no way connected either with governance or the much hyped development,” he said. Former Minister appealed LG administration to put in place a mechanism to ensure uninterrupted supplies and deliveries of essential services to the general public of J&K. He urged concerned departments to work on war foot basis to tackle the situation. Considering the rise in the confirmed corona virus cases in J&K, Bhalla appealed Administration to upgrade hospitals/infrastructure with the resources available with them. He emphasized that more Government hospital should be fully equipped with doctors, staff and equipments to tackle Covid-19 and that hospitals should be a dedicated health facility exclusively for treating patients having infected with the virus.
Although the lockdown will affect everyone, it has already disproportionately hit the lives of the poor. The hardest hit by the lockdown are the poor; daily wagers, construction workers, street vendors and the homeless. The news of a lockdown has thrown their lives into disarray, as industrial units and businesses, restaurants and other public places deemed non-essential have shut. This has meant that many millions are staring at the very real prospect of hunger, cramped living, inadequate sanitation and indefinite uncertainty. We must also realise that most people in our country cannot afford to stay away from work and do not have the luxury of living conditions which allow “social distancing,” said Bhalla. “It is the livelihoods of these people that would be further affected as more and more work from home and/or reduce their economic activity.