Govt has become a non-performing liability: PDP

Accusing the National Conference-Congress coalition in Jammu & Kashmir as a non-performing liability, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) today said government’s stands have been exposed for its non-performance and there are no takers for its hollow slogans now.

“The NC and Congress have reneged on almost all the promises made with the people during electioneering and the Coalition Government run by them seems to be a rudderless arrangement lacking direction and commitment,” senior PDP leader Tariq Hameed Karra said in a statement.

Reminding Chief Minister Omar Abdullah of the commitments made by him during electioneering, Karra said the people want to know where is the much-parroted Truth and Reconciliation Commission on human rights violations, what happened to the promise of releasing all the political detenues “within one week of the formation of the Government”.

He also questioned government commitment for one lakh jobs that were to be given in the first month of the new government gone, one job to each family, stipend for the educated unemployed youth, lowering educational qualification for recruitment of police constables to middle pass and last but not least slashing the power tariff and subsidizing the LPG and rations promised by NC during electioneering.

Karra said it is an irony that while the Chief Minister recently claimed in the Legislature that the State Government has initiated the process for revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), he couldn’t even act on his commitment of taking out a few battalions of CRPF from the Srinagar city.

“Even for reprimanding the security forces for the killing of innocent civilians at Bomai, Sopore and Nowhatta, Srinagar, the services of Union Home Minister have been requisitioned to chair the Unified Command meeting,” he said and added that instead of asserting his own authority, the Chief Minister seems to be pleading for mercy before the Union Government and the army commanders after the army’s unilateral rejection of the magisterial probe into the Bomai incident and the refusal to shift their camp from the area.

Reiterating that such incidents can’t be handled through patch-work, Karra said respecting the democratic urges of the State’s people and realizing the ground realities, the Government of India should take immediate steps towards revocation of the AFSPA and thinning the troops deployed on internal security duties.

“Till the security forces enjoy impunity under the special laws, the incidents like Bomai and Nowhatta are bound to recur, fuelling alienation and public unrest,” he said and added that the political and democratic forces in the State must be to assert themselves as a matter of right and not a concession.