Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Oct 21: Peoples Conference, senior vice president Abdul Gani Vakil today expressed dismay over the situation prevailing in Jammu and Kashmir, urging the Government of India to initiate confidence-building measures to end the widening wedge between the people and the Government.
Vakil in a statement issued here has said that it is a worrisome trend being witnessed at present that the administration has turned inaccessible to the people in its entirety leaving masses across the state of Jammu and Kashmir in distress at large. He said that the bureaucratic setup has become unaccountable in an outright manner, giving a deaf ear to people’s miseries and hardships they face in getting even their basic needs fulfilled.
He added that never was the need being felt for the peoples’ government so desperately as is being felt today in Jammu and Kashmir and that if the Government of India intends to strengthen the institution of democracy in the state, it must end the `Babu Raj’ prevailing here and allow the popular government to function without delay.
Vakil further highlighted that in order to regain people’s trust and win back their hearts, the Central Government must restore statehood for Jammu and Kashmir and release political prisoners, regularise casual workers so that same could pre-empt the larger democratic process to flourish in an otherwise crisis ridden place.
The PC vice president further termed the mass arrests, seizure of bikes, randomization of security measures that are doing no good on the ground and are rather contributing to a large extent in alienating people. Vakil has suggested that the knee-jerk reaction to the present satiation will yield no positive results and that the government must revisit its approach vis-à-vis the security scenario of Jammu and Kashmir.