SRINAGAR: Leader of Opposition Sunil Sharma on Thursday accused the ruling National Conference government of “betraying” the people of Jammu and Kashmir, alleging that key promises made before the elections on jobs and free electricity have not been fulfilled.
Addressing members in the Legislative Assembly, Sharma said the Omar Abdullah-led government had “deceived and misled” people ahead of the polls. “Before elections, the ruling party promised one lakh jobs to the youth of Jammu and Kashmir, and if today we look on the ground, nothing of that sort has been done,” he said.
He also questioned the feasibility of the promise of providing 200 units of free electricity. Sharma said that before the elections, the National Conference had opposed the installation of smart meters, but after coming to power, the same party was now insisting that smart meters were necessary. “Has the ruling party, along with the electricity department, tried to calculate how they would have afforded this policy of 200 free units?” he asked.
Referring to the shutdown of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Institute of Medical Excellence, Sharma said, “Not a single member of the BJP party was distributing sweets when the announcement was made, but how many parties in Jammu and Kashmir have distributed sweets over the burning of colleges?”
Sharma further alleged that the National Conference maintains double standards. “This party speaks about the atrocities of July 13 and sheds tears on it, but what about those teenagers who were killed by the same party? Boys like Wamiq Farooq and Tufail Mattoo were killed during this party’s government, and they went ahead and tried to justify those killings,” he said.
On the issue of political prisoners, Sharma said, “It is not us who have made those people political prisoners, rather you people and your successive governments. They have not gone to prison for the first time. You people used to keep them in jail for a few days and release them for a few days, but we are not you; we only have one face, and if today there is normalcy, it is because we kept those people in jail.”
