CAPD Minister held ‘Hostage’ by Legislator Rashid in Kupwara

KL NEWS NETWORK

SRINAGAR

Minister CAPD Choudhary Zulfkar Ali was Wednesday made hostage by MLA Langate, Er Rashid and his activists in Kupwara. The minister was in the district to oversee the developmental works.

“Minister Zulfkar had to seek an apology after he was kept hostage in Dak Bunglow Kupwara by protestors led by Er Rashid. The incident took place when during review meeting of District Kupwara Rashid criticized government for taking serious public issues for granted. Er Rashid besides objecting presence of PDP workers in the official review meeting asked minister why as district development board chairman he didn’t visited the site of incident at Langate where 4 civilians were critically injured today as a result of collision between army vehicle and a Van carrying passengers,” an Awami Itehad Party statement said this evening.

The statement said that Rashid also sought the reasons that why government had not paid ex-gratia to the next of kin of Mohammad Rafiq Dar of Pohrupeth Langate who was killed in Sopore during attack on a telecom franchisee. “Heated arguments took place between Er Rashid and PDP politicains and Rashid alleged that current government is shamelessly using state administration for its political and personal benefits.”

The statement quoting Rashid said, “though we don’t want dead bodies to be categorised, but how did government paid ex-gratia to victim’s family of a youth at Islamabad within few hours who was killed in a similar incident in which Rafiq lost his life. It is shameful on the part of the government that the next of kin of Rafiq and others killed in Sopore haven’t got even a single penny from the government even after months have passed”.

Rashid also strongly criticised the government for not carrying out repairs to the damaged infrastructure caused due to the recent cloud burst in Kupwara district and alleged that the ministers seem to be more worried about maintaining their protocols rather caring for sufferings of the people.

“Not satisfied with the minister’s clarifications,” the statement said that Rashid left the meeting and later along with supporters blocked minister’s exit from the Dak Bunglow and raised strong protest against the government for its failure to resolve even very minor issues.

“On this occasion the angry protestors had a scuffle with the police. Interestingly, the traditional Kashmiri Wazwan which was to be served to the minister and other dignitaries couldn’t be taken inside the Dak Bunglow and ultimately minister had to come out and apologise for the behaviour and had to promise a time bound redressal of the issues raised by Rashid, following which the protest was called off and minister was allowed to leave for Srinagar.”

Meanwhile, an official statement informed this evening that Minister for CA&PD and Tribal Affairs, Ch. Zulfkar Ali, who is also chairman of District development Kupwara, today convened an interaction meeting with MLAs, MLCs, HoDs, Civil Society members and officers and Engineers of District administration for reviewing the ongoing developmental projects and status of works in the district.

District Development Commissioner Kupwara KR Ranjan, SSP Kupwara, Ajaz Ahmad Bhat, Additional Deputy Commissioner besides District and sectoral officers were present in the meeting.

Addressing the meeting, the Minister directed the District administration that while preparing the plan the local representatives be involved for formulating the plan proposals as per the requirements of the people. He impressed upon the officers and implementing agencies to promote work culture in the state which is the priority of the present government.

The Minister asked the officers to work with zeal, zest and coordination for resolving the problems of the people. He directed the concerned officers to display the sign boards and complaint box at each FPS with telephone number of the higher authorities.

MLA, Kupwara, Bashir Ahmad Dar and MLA Karnah, Raja Manzoor projected the demands of people of their constituencies about improvement in basic facilities to the people in respect of road connectivity, health care filling up of vacancies in Government establishments, safe drinking water, transport etc.

Earlier, the District Development Commissioner briefed the meeting about the progress achieved under District Plan, state sector and Centrally Sponsored schemes besides Tribal Sub Plan. He informed that the District Plan for the year 2015-16 has been formulated at Rs 227 Crore which was already approved by the District Development Board Kupwara during the meeting at Baramulla.