Govt enacting drama on NHPC: Baig
Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, June 24: Describing as outrageous the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s diatribe against the power consumers, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) today said it was an insult to the people of the State.
Addressing a public meeting at Khori Batpora in Kulgam district, the party leadership led by its patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed said the Chief Minister’s remarks were contemptuous of an entire people and were not acceptable. Senior party leaders Muzaffar Hussein Baig, Tariq Hameed Karra, Muhammad Sartaj Madni and Abdul Gaffar Sofi addressed the well-attended meeting.
Mr Sayeed said the present power crisis faced by the State is a creation of the Government led by Omar Abdullah, who is not just the Chief Minister but the Power Minister as well.
“Like many other big and small initiatives that were taken by the previous Government, the progress in power sector reforms too has fallen a victim to the inefficiency, corruption and lack of political direction,” he said and added that significant improvement in power sector had been achieved and a new system was introduced and the people had accepted it without reservations but the NC botched it up with its misleading election slogans and the inability to implement reforms.
Regretting that the Chief Minister had resorted to threatening his own people, whom he claims to represent, the Mufti said such a conduct would shake the foundations of the democratic system in the State. He said by dubbing everybody as a thief, and trying to project himself as a saint, Omar is doing a great disservice to the high office he is holding and to the interests of the state.
He said after branding the people of this State as stone-pelters and anti-national elements, the newest abuse he is hurling at the people is tagging them power-thieves when the reality is that this Government itself is identified with ‘‘loot and plunder’’, which has led to ‘‘anarchy and maladministration.’’
Mufti said instead of blaming the people and the employees of Power Department, Omar Abdullah must own up the failure to provide the administrative leadership to this crucial sector that affects everybody’s life. He said the same people who he is cursing now had volunteered to install meters and were making regular payment as the previous coalition wanted to implement reforms sincerely. The present government to the contrary has lost credibility with the people and even its own employees with the result no public service is functional whether it is power, water, roads, health or education. “There is a complete collapse of administration in the state,” he added.
Mr Sayed said previously Kashmir used to be a chronic victim of power shortage during winters whenever NC ruled the state. This situation was reversed after 2002 with meter installation becoming popular and uninterrupted power supply ensured to such areas. But now even Jammu which did not face shortages is going through an acute crisis at a time when a severe heat wave has hit the region resulting in untold miseries on account of not only power, but also water supply.
He said the people of Jammu and Kashmir have never resisted reforms; they only need a government that leads them honestly as they showed whether it was meter installation, beautification of roads, removal of illegal structures, entry fee for gardens and parks or payment for services in government hospitals. They always gave their cooperation with the result that some historic initiatives could become possible. To blame the same people for the misdeeds and inefficiency of the Government is unfair and unjustified, he said.
Addressing the meeting, former Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussain Baig said the breast-beating by Omar Abdullah and one of his ministers about the exploitation of water resources by NHPC was a cruel joke on the people of the State.
“After handing-over 10 most feasible and viable projects to NHPC by Dr Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah it was ridiculous of them to complain,” Baig said pointing out that NC had historically stayed in power only by selling out the interests of the state. He said this process was on and the authority and asset base of the state was being eroded through the National Conference which after selling out the assembly’s autonomy resolution for Omar Abdullah’s ministership in the BJP led NDA is now back at its old game of emotional exploitation of people.
He said the so-called expression of concern of Chief Minister over the unfair treatment of the state by NHPC and phony claims by Taj Mohiuddin were part of the same drama script under which NC had been exploiting the sentiments of the people for the past 80 years.
“The fraud committed by the NC right since 1948 on the J&K state by selling its water resources was exposed by the PDP and the media and it could no more divert people’s attention from this crucial subject as the civil society too had now joined the campaign for the restoration of state’s economic lifeline”, Baig added.
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