Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, Apr 4: Expre-ssing their strong resentment over the style of functioning of the Government in the State, the BJP activists from Jammu rural today alerted the party Ministers that the organization is fast losing contact with masses.
According to sources, the resentment was expressed by almost all activists of the Party from Jammu rural in a meeting which was convened by Deputy Chief Minster, Dr Nirmal Singh here, today in which several party Ministers and other senior office bearers of the State were also present.
The party activists and office bearers from Jammu rural and some former office bearers while expressing their dismay over the style of the functioning of the Government, said that they are facing the public wrath in their localities and the Party is fast losing the contact with masses, sources added.
Sources said one of the former office bearers went up to the extent of saying that party is no where on ground in Jammu and the ground level workers are unable to face the public now because they have been totally neglected by the leadership including Ministers.
The party activists, while highlighting the problems of the people in their respective areas, said people face humiliation and total harassment while pursuing their land compensation cases in Revenue Department, sources said, adding some activists and district office bearers pointed out that administration don’t bother to concede their requests in finalizing the compensation cases of PoJK refugees, which are hanging in balance for a long time now.
Sources said the Ministers were informed in the meeting by the workers that in case they manage to seek some influence from any Minister, one or two files are cleared but rest are kept pending as the Revenue Department has fixed the rate for clearance of files or uploading them on computer “which is an open loot.”
Sources said the office bearers also informed the Ministers that the files of non camp PoJK refugees are pending for last 10 months and whenever the concerned people or office bearers approach the authorities they avoid them saying the file is lying in ACs office and some times they are told that it has not been cleared by tehsildar as yet and some times it is lying with DC. Every time whenever they visit the officials use the avoiding tactics, sources added.
Sources said taking a serious exception to this allegation, Deputy CM contacted the DC Jammu on phone to inquire the delay regarding clearance of files of refugees. He directed him that the office bearers of the district rural will come to his office and their grievances in this regard should be redressed immediately.
The party office bearers informed the Ministers and other senior leaders that no body in the Ministry is ready to listen them and the ground level workers feel totally dejected as they have been completely ignored by the Ministers, sources said, adding the ministers were told that no feed back is being taken from the partymen over the functioning of the Government and public perception about the working of Ministers.
Sources said one of the office bearers told Minister of PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control Sham Choudhary who was also present in the meeting that a PHE Pump developed a snag at Domana on March 9 and it was not restored almost for a month. The pump was restored only yesterday despite he and other party workers were making daily trips in the PHE office requesting the concerned officers that the people are facing drinking water problem so the pump be restored at an earliest. Instead of repairing the pump the officer concerned warned him. If this will be attitude of officers with the office bearers of the party what a common worker will expect from such officers.
The workers demanded that such officers who fail to address the problems of the public be grilled as party is answerable to people and in case the immediate steps will not be taken to grill the administrative machinery to be prompt to public grievances it will be too late to control the damage.
The BJP workers also expressed resentment over the delay in compensation to farmers of border areas who are unable to cultivate their land due to shelling from across and whose crops too were damaged due to shelling.
They also alleged that the people are being harassed by the authorities to reap the crops from their land which falls under ring road when the crops have not ripen as yet and they will be harvested only after the Baisakhi festival. They demanded that the concerned authorities be asked not to pressure the farmers whose land comes under ring road and they be given over 20 to 25 days for reaping the crops. Moreover these farmers be given compensation for their land as per market value.
The Deputy CM after hearing the grievances informed the party activists that he will convene another meeting with the prominent partymen of the district soon in which the public grievances will also be discussed and immediate steps will be taken for their redressal.
The other Ministers who were present in the meeting included Minister for Animal Husbandry and Fisheries, Abdul Gani Kohli, Minister of Cooperatives, Chering Dorjey Minister of State for Education, Priya Sethi, MoS Revenue, Relief and Finance, Ajay Nanda, VC Kissan Board, Daljit Singh Chib BJP general secretaries, Dr Narinder Singh and Harinder Gupta, MLA Chamb Krishan Lal, BJP vice president, Bharat Bushan alias Bodhi, Aseem Gupta, Prabhari for rural Jammu, district president Rural, Omi Khajuria, its general secretary, PawanSalathia, Suraj Singh, Suresh Sharma, Nand Kishore, Mukesh Sharma, Suraj Parkash Padha, Dr Pardeep Mahotra etc.