Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept 3: National Panthers Party leaders and activists today held strong protest demonstration against the BJP- led Central Government over the denial of even a single smart city to J&K under Central Government’s Pan- India mega ‘Smart Cities’ project.
Against the attitude of Union Ministry for Housing and Urban Development, a large number of protestors spearheaded by Harshdev Singh, chairman JKNPP, Balwant Singh Mankotia State president and Yashpal Kundal State president Young Panthers staged a massive protest demonstration outside the Press Club here today. The annoyed protestors raised the slogans, “Jammu ke Liye Smart City ki …Goshna karo, Ghoshna karo, …Nikkami Sarkar… Hai, Hai “.
Later, they took out a procession, blocked the Tawi bridge for some time and torched the effigy of the Central Government. The police tried to foil their protest march on the road and protesting workers showed tough resistance. Terming the shocker as sinister and bizarre, Harshdev Singh recalled that earlier on the initiative of the Central Government the Governor of J&K State NN Vohra had proposed and identified four cities vis-à-vis Jammu, Srinagar, Katra and Anantnag for the development of Smart Cities under the Rs 9, 6000 crores Central-State Project earmarked for constructing 100 similar cities all across the country. Despite Central Government giving nod to Smart Cities in the month of April this year, Dr Nirmal Singh who holds the charge of the Urban Development Ministry in the Government of J&K had grossly failed to persuade the Union Minister for Urban Development Venkaiah Naidu in New Delhi to approve their construction in J&K.
Mr Mankotia held BJP culpable for playing foul with the sentiments of the electorate of Jammu region. He said that the Saffron party has been acting as a stooge in the ruling alliance just to enjoy power at the cost of the public aspirations. Moreover, it has resorted to politics of oppression to subdue the voice of the people which would not be tolerated by them any more. He asserted that any further act of jiggery- pokery by the BJP would turn fatal for them in the days to come. He further questioned the MoS Finance Pawan Gupta over his tall claims of developing Udhampur as Smart City.
Anita Thakur, Jagdev Singh, Manju Singh, Rajesh Pargotra, Sham Gorkha, Paramjit Singh Marshal, Gagan Pratap Singh, Rajeshwar Singh and others also accompanied.
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