Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, June 4: Expressing concern over the failure of the elected representatives to espouse the cause of common man in the Assembly, Harshdev Singh, Chairman JKNPP and former Minister regretted that such mandated leaders were fighting for enhancement of their own salaries and perks inside the legislative rather than projecting the concerns of the general public.
He said that the State was passing through a worst ever phase of mis-goverance with different sections of society agitating on the streets but their voice hardly found any echo inside the legislature.
He was addressing a huge public gathering in Palnoo, Balpur and Sundla villages of Majalta tehsil.
Pointing towards the unprecedented unscheduled power cuts in harsh summers, Harshdev Singh said that the people were experiencing the worst nightmares with the Government sleeping over the issue and the elected representatives unconcerned enjoying the cool breezes of Kashmir. He said that regular protests on the issue of power supply and water crises had fallan an deaf ears with no takers for the same in Assembly. He said that while the people were expecting their representatives to project their grievances in the Assembly so as to mitigate their woes and sufferings, the said leaders were fighting for enhancement of their own salaries and emoluments besides their discretionary grants of CDF.
Describing the demand of legislators for pay hike as unreasonable and ill-timed, Harshdev Singh said that the Government was presently faced with the worst ever financial crises with the negligible wages of DRWs, Casuals, contractual, consolidated workers, Anganwari and ASHA workers, SPOs, SSA teachers, academic arrangement lecturers and others remaining unrevised and unpaid for months together. He said that, had the legislators agitated on the issue of enhancement of daily rate of wages of Rs. 150/- per day, which had remained unrevised for last several years, it would have been appreciable.
Similarly the mandated leaders allowed the VAT and Toll Tax to be enhanced besides the increase in the entertainment levy on Satellite and cable network. He regretted in particular the failure of BJP leaders to get the service tax on Mata Vaishno Devi pilgrims revoked. He regretted that the said service tax was now being made applicable for Helicopter services to Amarnath Ji and Machail Yatra pilgrims.
Pointing towards the mis-utilization of CDF by certain legislators, as recently reported in the media, Harshdev Singh called for strict vigil in the use of the said discretionary grant. Ridiculing the demand for enhancement of CDF by certain unscrupulous members as against several scrupulously honest MLAs, Harshdev Singh said that these MLAs had not utilized even 10% of their CDF released to them after the new Government was formed on March 1, 2016.
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