| News Details |
| PDP for full empowerment of Panchayats:Mehbooba | | 
Poonch/Jammu, April 17 (Scoop News) - Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti has said that coalition government was wasting a historic opportunity to empower the people of the state by creating hurdles in the growth of panchayats as independent community based institutions. Addressing a public meeting at Surenkote today she however expressed her confidence that the government might be able to delay the inevitable empowerment of panchayats but it won’t be allowed to prevent it.
Mehbooba said the hope and confidence with which people of the state had overwhelmingly voted in last years panchayat elections had been shattered by the negative tactics of the government in empowering these important institutions of self governance. She said both the major coalition partners NC and Cong were responsible for this set back to the empowerment process of the people in the state. “ They are indulging in shadow boxing by raising fingers at each other, while both parties have let down the millions of voters who voted their panches and sarpanches with the hope of shaping their destiny at local level”.
The PDP president said her party was clear from day one about the need for full empowerment of panchayats as was resolved at the panchayat conference organized by it in July last year. The government on the other hand has only been making hollow announcements without actually giving any powers or development funds to the panchayats. She said the elections to the block and district councils had not ben conducted for one full year, neither had any funds been provided to panchayats nor the remuneration released to panches and sarpanches.
Referring to the delay in elections to the urban local bodies Mehbooba said this government was scared of facing the public and was therefore unwilling to carry forward the process of elections. She said the ruling parties were trying to subvert the entire democratic system on one pretext or the other and the urban local bodies had become the victim of their insecurity at popular level.
Mehbooba said the price for the corruption and misgovernance was being paid by the common people of the state. She said the money that goes into the pocket of the rulers is actually to be used for our roads, drinking water, schools and medical facilities. “While the government failed to perform its duties on these important fronts. It is adding burden on every body by hiking the prices of commodities, power tariff and drinking water fees”. She said the proposed hike in the power tariff which is the third since NC government took over comes with the Chief Ministers announcement of further cuts in power supply. “Nothing could be more cruel than this from a government that had promised free electricity and cooking gas during its election campaign”, she said.
Mehbooba said while corruption in rest of the country was taking a heavy toll of political careers and reputations Jammu & Kashmir was witnessing a concerted effort by institutions of the state to protect the corrupt politicians. She said the chief Minister institution is directly linked to corrupt practices as was established by the circumstances leading to the death of NC woker Haji Mohammed Yousuf. Similarly Dr Farooq Abdullah is directly involved in the embazzelmemts in J&K Cricket Association Scam. “Taking a cue from the involvement of the coalition leaders and Ministers in brazen loot of state resources the entire administrative system has become corrupt”, she said and pointed out that the same administration when led differently during the previous government had produced entirely different results on the ground. She said it was now a norm for ordinary people to pay for every service from the government whether it is getting a ration card, a residence certificate, assistance for destituets and widows or job crads under NREGA. She said this government was beyond redemption and it was only the people of state who could help in changing the system which the PDP is aiming at.
Mehbooba said the neglect of the area is evident from the fact that the parnai hydel project on which work was resumed by previous government had again been shelved. Similarly the large Fazalabad area continues to remain cut off as the work on the bridge started by PDP government has been abandoned. She said with the opening of Mughal Road scenic places like Bufliaz could be developed as tourist spot of great attraction.
Endorsing the demand for new blocks and nayabats in Surenkote Mehbooba said the NC had once again failed to respond to the special needs of far flung and distant areas. Even though the PDP-Congress government had opened up the Poonch Rajouri region to new initiatives of progress and development, the present dispensation has again put a lid on it. She said only contribution of the present government to the construction of Mughal road was to delay its completion by two years so far. She said even as many colleges, schools and Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University were setup in the area, not even a primary school was added to the educational map of the twin districts by the government. “ They have even failed to provide infrastructure for these institutions inspite of the availibilty of funds”.
. MLA Ch. Zulufkar Ah, MLC Murtaza Ah Khan, Dr Mumtaz Bukhari, Ab Hameed Manhas, Ab Aziz Mirza, Mehtab Bukhari, Mukhtar Sheikh, Baba Khadim Hussain, Adv Shakoor Ah, Zaffar Qureshi, Bagh Hussain Khawaja, Attaullah Malik, Arif Shah, and Shahzaad Khan were present and also spoke on this occasion.
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