KL Report
SRINAGAR
Strongly calling for youth participation in the forthcoming polls, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president, Mehbooba Mufti Sunday said the choice has to be made by young population whether they want the state to live in the perpetual instability or they want to give themselves a chance for growth and harnessing of their potential.
Addressing various roadside meetings in Islamabad assembly segment Mehbooba blamed the National Conference of carrying forward an anti-youth agenda by denying the young population of Kashmir a democratic space, curbing their voices and not doing anything substantial to make their future better. “NC has a vested interest in instability as has been established time and again. PDP on the other hand has a track record of bringing in stability and is the only party qualified to do so through a progressive and well defined agenda,” said Mehbooba.
She said NC has always been averse to the youth participation in the democratic process because it does not want anybody else to come forward to play its role in making the system better and accountable. “The party whose top leader says I am the agenda and claims credit for earth filling of a sports ground as his main achievement during last five years to seek votes again has obviously nothing to offer the youth,” Mehbooba said while referring to recent statements of Dr Farooq Abdullah.
Mehbooba said in 1987 the NC denied the youth a representative space and pushed them to pick up guns by rigging the elections and the situation is now before all of us which tells loud about the NC’s lust for power and its least concern about the people’s aspirations.
She said now it has pushed the youth to pick up stones by blocking their all avenues of political and developmental progress and wreaking gravest injuries on them by misusing the state apparatus in the cruelest manner.
“By killings 120 youth in 2010, putting hundreds behind the bars on flimsy charges, lodging FIRs against more than 10 thousand young man the ruling government has crossed all limits of cruelty and insensitivity,” she said adding instead of reaching out to the young in a humane manner this government is claiming credit for having introduced the most inhuman methods of oppression like Pepper Guns, Chili Grenades and Pellet Guns in Kashmir ‘as an act of mercy’.
The PDP president said the choice is to be made by the youth now who have to drive the state to change whether they want to continue live in this darkness or they want to give themselves a chance to grow. “The youth have to make it a point whether to pick up stones for making the deaf and dumb NC government listen to their demands or they have to grow intellectually and pick up pen and paper and seek modern education and respectable job avenues and take the state to a new level of development,” said Mehbooba.
She said unemployment among the educated youth is alarming and instead of making efforts to create more job avenues the ruling government has employed more than 400 mostly corrupt bureaucrats by giving them lakhs of rupees in salaries per month and for the youth it has come out with a so-called recruitment policy which is most insulting in nature.
She said for its own luxuries the NC-led government has no problem of money but when it comes to give salaries to employees, daily wagers, contractual, seasonal workers the government has nothing to spend. She the state police force which is doing the tough job on ground, have been deprived of their ration money and nothing is being done to address their pay anomaly issue. Same is the case with the SPOs, who are facing pay problems and the government has nothing to say about their regularization issue.
Mehbooba said the ruling government has badly failed to complete the projects started by the PDP-led government for Islamabad area. She said the South Campus of Kashmir University and hospital in the area have not seen considerable growth under the present regime and so is the case with the internal road network in the town and around.
