KL Desk
Srinagar
Accusing National Conference of treating Srinagar as a bonded territory, only as a ladder to luxuries of power, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed Sunday urged the residents of city to wake up to the infrastructure disaster in the capital city.
Addressing a workers meeting at Balhama in the Sonwar constituency, Mufti said no transformation of the historic city was possible till the NC enjoyed a free run in elections in Srinagar facilitated by poll boycott.
Citing the data available in public domain Mufti said the share of Srinagar District had got reduced from 5.83% in 2006-07 to 3.29% in 2012-13 within the District Plan of the State.
Mufti said that the Srinagar is crumbling as the infrastructure development was not at all keeping pace with the pressures of increasing urbanisation and tourist inflow.
“95% of Srinagar dwellings are unplanned leading to choking and other social problems with the government busy only in compromises for its survival,” he said adding that the “city was turning into a virtual slum.”
He said only last year the government had diverted funds amounting to Rs 48 crore under Central Road Fund (CRF) and none of the legislators had even raised the issue, not to speak of the chief minister who actually ordered it as minister in charge of R&B.
Mufti said though the ten legislators from Srinagar and Ganderbal districts were crucial to NC’s survival in power, the party had taken the residents there for granted, considering that there would always be boycott in elections and they could run away with results in their favour.
Mufti asked people to ponder over this situation and decide whether this situation should be allowed to perpetuate at the cost of their interests.
“Legislators and MP from Srinagar were paying only lip service to the city without any contribution to its growth on modern lines,” said Mufti.
Referring to the four lane of Srinagar Jammu Highway, Mufti said even though it had been got approved by the then prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, it had failed to take off beyond Panta Chowk for lack of follow up by the state government.
“Not a single kilometre had been completed in the four years of present dispensation and Srinagar city was choked at the main entry points of Panta Chowk and Parimpora. Even the Srinagar Narbal widening project was running in its seventh year without its completion in sight, with the result that travel on these routes had become almost like a punishment,” Mufti told the gathering.
Terming the claims of government about development of Srinagar as false and misleading, Mufti said the city was still at a stage of growth where patch work on roads or fixing of a lighting post was projected as an achievement and a favour.
He said through the plans like the Asian Development Bank assistance and other multilateral and central funding the PDP led government had planned to take the city to next level of development which included a rapid transport system, proper sewerage disposal and a dependable power distribution system but that too had suffered a reversal. “Projects are now used only to provide jobs to favourites through back door while out of the seven proposed flyovers not a single had been taken in hand even though this government is now on its last leg” Mufti said. He said many sewerage projects had become a source of discomfort as roads in those areas remained ripped open for years with work execution going on at snail’s pace.
Mufti said a government that is unable to even ensure the supply of unsubsidized cooking gas to consumers could achieve precious little on any front requiring proper planning, monitoring and serious execution. He said he was pained to see long queues of people waiting for gas everywhere as if they were given alms. The deteriorating power situation had made things worse and this government had lost the moral right to rule in view of the miseries heaped by it on the people.
