KL Report
SRINAGAR
Taking strong note of revelations that a senior PDP leader from Srinagar has committed serious commercial power theft running into crores by by-passing the meter at his flour mill in Tangmarg, National Conference Spokesman Junaid Azim Mattu has alleged that PDP had emerged as a safe-haven for “power thieves, corrupt bureaucrats, money launderers, tax evaders, land grabbers, political fixers and men of notoriety in the organized crime syndicate” in the State.
NC Spokesman also welcomed the suspension of those engineers who were found complacent in reporting this incident of theft and also welcomed the Power Development Department’s move of imposing a fine of Rupees Thirty Lakhs on the flour mill of the PDP leader from Srinagar for being involved in this serious, major theft.
Stating that PDP’s new faces where in fact conventional charge-sheeters and manipulative middle-men who had made unexplained personal fortunes by indulging in loot and plunder of public money and resources, the NC Spokesman said that Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s own track-record when it came to corruption was dismal and perhaps explained the party’s tendency to attract some of the most corrupt and unscrupulous elements in the State in its new motley crew of trumpeters.
The NC Spokesman said, “those who were now caught stealing power also had serious and embarrassing allegations of not only major embezzlement while in government service but of also going to the extent of stealing lakhs of gunny-sacks and bags from Food and Supplies Department,”.
“These same power thieves had taken the State’s Employees for a ride for years by ensuring that their genuine demands remained unresolved. These self-styled former employees’ leaders converted their black money into white money through unexplained investments throughout the State while they fleeced our employees and exploited their struggle to become heroes in newspapers”, Mattu said.
He said that the Omar Abdullah Government had clear and honest intentions to meet the genuine demands of the employees from the very beginning, but it was these manipulative erstwhile employees’ leaders who sabotaged these efforts at every crucial juncture for personal motives and gains. “These former employees’ leaders were hand-in-glove with PDP in ensuring the demands of the employees are not met. This fact became evidently clear when these individuals joined PDP post-retirement and abandoned the interests of the employees in this State”, Mattu said.
The NC Spokesman said that Mufti Mohammad Sayeed during his tenure as the Chief Minister outsourced the State to his coterie of power brokers, political fixers and mafia-men. “This was the reason why J&K got adjudged the most corrupt State in the country during the PDP rule. When PDP found that it was getting exposed and its most senior Cabinet Ministers were being indicted in major scams, they brazenly dis-empowered the State Accountability Commission and rendered it defunct through a planned conspiracy”, Mattu said.
He said that National Conference demands that serious allegations of “drug-mafia nexus, financial frauds, kidnapping, tax-evasion and loot and plunder of public resources” allegedly against some senior PDP leaders should be investigated in a time-bound manner and those found involved should be sent behind bars. “PDP is trying to stoop to any level of depravity to make inroads into Srinagar and their primary strategy is to patronize the criminal syndicate in the city so as to oppress and coerce the people of this historic city. National Conference will expose all these elements by snatching the masks from their faces and showing the people the kind of leadership alternatives that are being presented by PDP”, Mattu said.
The NC Spokesman alleged that PDP had acquired the services of corrupt bureaucrats and retried police officers in harassing the people of Srinagar so as to reap the political dividends of coercion and suppression. “They have the audacity to speak of the unfortunate killings of 2010 while admitting into their party some of the most brutal and oppressive, recently retired police officers who fleeced the youth of Srinagar despite the Government’s approach of leniency. Till yesterday PDP leaders would openly accuse a recently retired Police Officer of asking for bribes to lift Public Safety Acts. Today the same Police Officer has become PDP’s innocent lamb by landing in their lap”, Mattu said.
