CM orders review of cases against youth not involved in serious crimes

Fayaz Bukhari

Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti takes a scooty ride after distributing scooties among college students at Anantnag on Sunday. — Excelsior/Sajad Dar
Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti takes a scooty ride after distributing scooties among college students at Anantnag on Sunday.
— Excelsior/Sajad Dar

SRINAGAR, Dec 25: Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today ordered review of the cases filed against the youth who were not involved in serious crimes during the over five-month-long unrest in Kashmir.
The Chief Minister ordered this at a meeting of her Cabinet colleagues, senior police and civil administration officers, called to review the pace of development works in South Kashmir.
Mehbooba said: “Though not many youths are in custody now, a lenient view may be taken of youths who were either not involved in any serious offence, or were too young.”
Kashmir witnessed violent protests after killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on July 8 during which thousands of youth were arrested for fomenting trouble.
Chief Minister while speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a function said that the dialogue process cannot be initiated without peaceful atmosphere and the unrest in Kashmir has affected its progress and that of the developmental works. “We believe until there is peaceful atmosphere, dialogue process can’t be initiated. The dialogue can be initiated when the atmosphere is conducive”, she said.
Mehbooba said that that since the situation is limping to normalcy, the developmental process that got stopped due to the unrest in the Valley has to be started. “The work on standstill projects can be resumed but the loss of human lives is irreparable”, she said.
Chief Minister said that she has directed the Deputy Commissioners and other officials to step up the developmental process so that the loss suffered during the unrest is compensated.
Mehbooba said that due to the freezing temperatures the power generation has been affected which has led to more load shedding. She said that due to unrest the work on the power sector could not be taken up during the summers leading to problems faced by the people on power front now.
Earlier addressing a gathering at Government Boys Degree College while distributing Scooties among the meritorious girl students of the district, the Chief Minister said that youth is the biggest treasure of a society and when given a chance the boys and girls from Jammu and Kashmir have outshined in every field.
Mehbooba said the human capital of a country is measured by the number of young boys and girls their society possesses. She said God has bestowed our youth with abundant talent and potential which has been exemplified time and again.
The CM asked students to give their best to education as it is the only weapon to fight against inequality, poverty and neglect. She said education is a great game changer and Islam has laid enough stress on seeking knowledge. “In today’s world knowledge economy has surpassed all other types of economies and asked the students to seize this opportunity knocking at their door”, she said.
Mehbooba regretted that a number of youth were affected by the turmoil in last five months. She said during this period not only the Government but every section of society suffered and now people have started realizing the quantum of loss. She said her resolve has been to get the people of the State out of the present times of uncertainty so that our youth have a joyful, happy and smiling future.
She also regretted the loss of time during the current working season and said that instructions have been passed to make up for the lost time in every sector of activity.
The Chief Minister later distributed scooties among 19 meritorious girl students of the district. She said on the pattern of scooty scheme, an All Terrain Bike scheme has been introduced for the meritorious boys at schools.
In the review meeting Mehbooba impressed upon the officers to be responsive to the winter specific needs of people in the Kashmir particularly in sectors like power and water supply, firewood and fuel availability, ration supply etc.
She asked the engineers of PDD to rationalize their resources to address the complaint of frequent power cuts during winters which puts people to immense difficulties. She asked the officers of other Departments to be available to the complaints and grievances of people during winters and take urgent steps on them.
Mehbooba also reviewed the stocking and supply position of essential commodities like fuel, ration etc in the District and directed regular augmentation of the same.
Chief Minister directed the officers to keep the tempo of developmental works on and redouble their efforts to make up for the lost time. She said that though a good time of working season got lost this year, efforts should be made to make up for the time lost by taking up and completing the works within or ahead of time schedule.
The meeting was told that work on several key developmental projects in the district is apace, including a 300 bedded district hospital, Trauma Hospital at Bijbehara, degree colleges at Kokernag and Uttersoo, Pushwara bridge, polytechnic college at Larkipora besides eight major bridges which are in various stages of completion. It was given out that many of these developmental projects would be fast paced and are likely to be completed next year.
Earlier, the Chief Minister inaugurated the newly constructed meeting Hall in the Dak Bungalow complex. Built at a cost of Rs.. 4.88 crore, the meeting hall is first of its kind in the South Kashmir.
The Chief Minister also laid the foundation of Khanabal-Batapora road to be constructed by the Department of Disaster Management.
Minister for R&B & Parliamentary Affairs, Abdul Rehman Veeri; Minister for Education, Naeem Akhtar; Minister of State for Hajj & Auqaf, Syed Farooq Andrani; MP, Nazir Ahmad Laway; legislators, Gulzar Ahmad Wani, Altaf Ahmad Kaloo and Abdul Rahim Rather; Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Baseer Ahmad Khan; IGP Kashmir zone, SJM Gillani; DIG, SKR, Nitish Kumar; Deputy Commissioner, Anantnag, Syed Abid Rasheed; SSP, Anantnag, Zubair Khan and divisional heads of several Departments were present in the meeting and other functions.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here