Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 4: Exuding confidence about National Conference emerging victorious in the ensuing Assembly elections, provincial president Devender Singh Rana today said political stability is imperative for sustaining peace and maintaining developmental tempo, set in motion by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.
“We are confident to emerge as single largest party with comfortable majority in the Legislative Assembly”, Mr Rana said while addressing party functionaries of the Jammu region at Sher-e-Kashmir Bhavan here this morning.
He lauded the enthusiasm among party cadre and said this is needed to be channelized in proper direction to steer the State to stability for achieving twin objectives of political empowerment and economic transformation of the people. “A significant headway has been made towards this direction during the past over five and half years and still more is required to be done”, he said, adding, this could be achieved only when National Conference gets a clear mandate.
The provincial president described the upcoming elections as watershed, saying these will change the political discourse and engage people in decision making in a big way. Despite various bottlenecks, he said, Omar Abdullah succeeded in empowering people at the grass roots level by holding Panchayat elections and empowering them by introducing Public Services Guarantee and Right to Information Acts. “These are pivotal for good governance, accountable administration and combating corruption”, he said while referring to the initiatives taken in this regard in recent years.
While urging party functionaries to get ready for the biggest democratic exercise in a big way, Rana said that National Conference is the only party having its presence in every nook and corner of the State. This being the strength of the public movement, “there is no reason why National Conference will not bounce back in a big way”, he added.
Earlier, arrangements were finalized for observing the 14th death anniversary of Madr-e-Meharban Begum Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah on July 11.
Prominent among those present in the meeting were Th Kashmira Singh, Rattan Lal Gupta, Sheikh Bashir Ahmed, Bimla Luthra, Vijay Laxmi Dutta, Surinder Singh, T S Toni and others.
Meanwhile, taking strong exception to impending decision of the Centre to establish toll collection plazas at Thandikhoi and Bann, Mr Rana said that this will be a burden on the people of State.
In a statement, he termed the move as anti-people and urged the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to take up the matter with the concerned ministry at the Centre for reviewing the decision.
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