Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 16: Expressing concern over scarcity of essential commodities, Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) senior vice-president and former minister Raman Bhalla today said the administration must come out of deep slumber and infuse responsiveness and an element of accountability in its machinery in order to mitigate the sufferings of people.
Addressing a public gathering at Qasim Nagar as a part of his mass contact programme in Gandhi Nagar constituency, Bhalla alleged that the incumbent PDP-BJP Coalition Government had failed on all fronts. People of Jammu were experiencing difficulties due to shortage of electricity, erratic water supply and scarcity of ration but the authorities were not paying any attention to these burning problems of the common man, he said.
Bhalla attributed the low turnout to disappointment with local Government’s ability to provide jobs and services, the lack of any progress in the peace process. Most voters in and around Srinagar were more concerned with local issues such as roads, health care, schools and jobs than broader principles. People’s participation is very important for making good democracy not only at State or Union level but also at grass-root level. The Panchayat election 2011 in J&K was the overall enthusiasm of the people, where around 80% voter turnout was recorded. The turnout in the Kashmir valley was over 77.71%.
Sunday’s 7.14% (revised from 6.5%) was the lowest in 30 years. The level of violence in 2014 too stayed low and people – especially in the Valley – came out in larger numbers in response to Mehbooba’s call to keep the BJP from crossing Banihal, the tunnel that connects Jammu with Kashmir. Whatever their final analysis, Mehbooba by asking for a postponement to the Anantnag election has only admitted that the ground situation is beyond the control of her Government. It is the clear wake-up call for the Narendra Modi-led Government, Bhalla added.
“As the PDP-BJP Govt has completed a considerable time in office, it has been only a story of controversies between the coalition partners so far. In so far tenure of the Government, the coalition partners have failed to deliver on any of the promises they made to the people in their ‘agenda for alliance’. The Coalition to brazenly bulldoze Panchayat Raj Institutions in J&K. The decision of the State Government to conduct indirect elections of Sarpanchs was nothing but an attempt to snatch democratic rights of the people,” he maintained.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
