Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 18: Accusing the Centre of being apathetic to the concerns of Jammu region and its people, JKNPP chairman and former minister, Harsh Dev Singh today said that the Dogras continued to bear the brunt of discrimination even after the abrogation of Art 370 and the re-organization of the State.
“While Kashmir continues to get unabated attention of the Govt, what falls in the lap of the nationalist Dogras is disillusionment. The slew of measures are being announced for Kashmir by the Centre and UT Govts after the abrogation of Art 370 while people of the Jammu still facing injustice,” Singh said while addressing a public meeting at Khandwal village in Raipur-Domana constituency today.
Pointing towards the funds released for the two Agricultural Universities of J&K by the Govt, Singh regretted that while SKUAST (K) was given Rs 20 crore, the SKUAST (J) was made to content with merely Rs 5 crores despite the two Universities enjoying identical status. Likewise, all vacant positions in SKUAST (K) were advertised for filling up, but no action was taken to advertise the vacancies in SKUAST (J) which could help the said University to make up its deficient faculty besides providing employment avenues to local youth, he revealed.
Singh further added that UT Govt has released Rs 11.89 crore for Kashmir districts only under “Back to Village” programme without addressing the financial requirements of Jammu districts. He said that only a couple of months back, the Govt had announced MIS for Kashmir farmers with Union Finance Minister further announcing a package of Rs 5000 crores for lifting the apples, walnuts and saffron of Kashmir orchardists. And now, the J&K Horticulture Deptt has prepared a report projecting the losses to Kashmir orchardists due to “untimely snowfall” in November 2019 worth Rs 2297 crore including damages to apple trees, revealed Singh.
Only recently the Govt issued an order to provide onions at control rates of Rs 33 per kg in Kashmir and Rs 40 per kg in Jammu. He said a grand sports event “Khelo Kashmir” was organized in Srinagar recently with Avinash Rai Khanna himself monitoring the programmes alongwith the top officers of J&K Govt without providing any such opportunity to the talented youth of Jammu region. He said that the UT administration seemed to be fully focused on Kashmir.
Singh further regretted the recent shifting of Mountain Metrological Centre (MMC) and Snow and Avalanche Studies Establishment (SASE) from Jammu to Manali. He said that MMC and SASE were functional in Jammu for the last several years under the aegis of Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) with almost the entire staff in the said institutes belonging to Jammu region.
Capt Anil Gour, Surinder Chouhan, Gurdeep Singh and Dr Suresh Kumar also spoke on the occasion.
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