KL Desk
Bandipora
Condemning the air strikes of Isreal on Gaza, Peoples Democratic Party Patron and former Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed on Tuesday urged Prime Minister to use his offices to push for an end to Israeli aggression.
“India being the largest democracy in the world should take a lead in brokering peace in the Middle East by mobilizing the world opinion in prevailing upon Israel to stop its aggression the helpless Palestine’s,” Mufti said. He was addressing party workers in Bandipora,
Talking about the Indo-Pak relations, Mufti said that the resolution and reconciliation process has received a set back during last many years,
“It was clear that India and Pakistan will have to pick up threads again and speed up the implementation of Cross LoC relations decided between the two countries last year,” he said
Mufti while accusing coalition government of only raising slogans said, “Instead of working for removing the hassles in LoC trade and making travel across it easier. The present government had picked up reunification of the erstwhile state and opening of Jammu-Sialkote road in the nature of election time sloganeering.”
PDP patron also said the reopening of traditional routes had special significance for areas like Bandipore which before partition were important centers of trade with Central Asia.
He said reopening of roads like Bandipore-Gilgit could usher in a new era of prosperity and cultural revitalization for the people who have been pushed into a dead end following the partition. He said Bandipore with its immense natural assets could genuinely claim a place on the tourist map of the world but unsettled conditions and lack of interests by the successive NC governments in development of infrastructure has relegated such prime spots to oblivion.
Referring to the execution of power projects like Kishan Ganga hydel project being executed in Gurez-Bandipore area, Mufti said such venture caused immense environmental damage and in case of places like Gurez they have deep cultural impact which affects the population adversely.
He said on the one hand the state has been treated unfairly in allocation of power from these projects that were handed over to the NHPC by National Conference government and on the other hand the state has to pay heavy price in terms of environmental degradation.
“PDP with the support of people will ensure that the highly discriminatory and unfair terms of engagement with NHPC are renegotiated and the state gets adequate share of the power generated from these projects and is compensated for the environmental cost we pay,” Mufti stressed.
