Union Govt ignorant about ground realities in J&K: Bhalla

Vijaypur: Former Minister and senior Congress leader Raman Bhalla on Wednesday conducted a tour of Vijaypur constituency to listen to public grievances mounting with every passing day. Speaking on the occasion, Bhalla expressed great resentment over lack of development in Vijaypur for the last six years despite the fact that mostly a border constituency, Vijaypur also has the biggest industrial area, Bari-Brahmana, 218 villages are situated along the International Border with Pakistan.It is 10 km from Jammu and shares boundaries with Gandhi Nagar, Bishnah, and Samba assembly constituencies. Locals complain of lack of development, dilapidated infrastructure, including power, water supply and condition of roads. Another issue is the demand for 5-marla land to border residents at safer places as they frequently had to bear the brunt of cross-border firing. In August and October, villages along the IB witnessed massive cross-border firing from Pakistan forcing lakhs to flee homes and take shelter in refugee camps. Unemployment is another concern for locals. In 2014 assembly elections, BJP had promised government jobs to educated unemployed youth and for youth who have passed Classes 8 and 10. But no such selection process ever took place and the youth are feeling cheated. Former Minister said that peace and governance have taken a big hit under BJP Government.“While the present insensitive dispensation has plunged J&K into an unprecedented crisis, the development has come to a grinding halt and governance at the lowest ebb”, Bhalla said while interacting with aggrieved people at Swankhan Morh  in Vijaypur Assembly Constituency this afternoon maintain proper social distancing and other guidelines by Health Ministry. Prominent among those present on the occasion include  PCC Member Tirth Ram Bhagat, PCC Member Babool Gupta, Rajan Sharma Councillor, working Block President Rashpal Choudhary, DCC General Secretary Jatin Vashisht , Choudhary Vijay, Sai Dass, Sarpanch Jagdish Bhatti, Jagdeep Singh, Joginder Kumar beside others. The former minister today appealed the Lt Governor to address issues of refugees in the area. These local allottees and refugees also highlighted problems being faced by them in their area and the unemployment among the youth. “The Government should send a delegation on ground zero to take the assessment and meet the families so that proper report is filed on the condition of their lives, standard of education and health issues,” Bhalla said. There is a need to give reservations to the residents of the international border so that their children can also compete in education and get Government jobs. “These children suffer when Pakistan opens fire across the border and target their houses. These people have to flee for weeks abandoning their houses for safety. Hence, their education also suffers more,” he said.

 The former minister said due to wrong policies of BJP dispensation the normal life in entire J&K  is in jeopardy, especially as the government has lost will to govern. The lack of political direction has terribly impacted the administration that is seen wanting in every sector. In this context, he referred to the administrative breakdown, developmental paralysis and poor condition of utility services which have led to acute drinking water scarcity and frequent load shedding in most parts of Jammu. This has made the life of people, particularly in the Jammu region miserable. Similar is the scenario with respect to rations, provision of agriculture inputs to farmers and lack of basic minimum necessities to the people, Bhalla said, adding that the people are disillusioned and disenchanted with the present Government.

 The greatest official apathy which this Assembly segment faced is that BJP Governments failed to pay due attention to the development of the greatest twin pilgrimage centers of Purmandal and Utterbehni which are part of Assembly constituency. These two pilgrimage centers have great relevance in Hindu scriptures right from the Puranic period the people used to come there and pay their obeisance to the Gods, besides performing the religious rituals of departed souls as well as last rites of the dead.But both of these pilgrimage centers faced constant neglect over the last six years as Government took no keen interest in their development and upkeep. The people of twin religious centers rue Government’s and public representatives apathy towards them saying had the Government taken a keen interest in the development of these two religious places they would have been on the national map of pilgrimage centers like Haridwar, Priyag Raj and Varanasi.

 This would have led to the influx of huge pilgrims to these two religious places every year which would have led to generation of trade and economic upliftment of the people in surrounding areas, besides generating the income for Government. Even people complained that they face transport problem as no proper facilities are available and mostly buses remain overloaded which also have no timing. In Purmanadal people complained that there are no proper facilities in the Hospital which has a shortage of doctors. Earlier there was an Ultrasound facility in the Hospital but now it is not available. In case of delivery the patient is referred to GMC then what is the fun of having Hospital at Purmandal, he questioned. Even in case of a snake bite, the patient is referred to Jammu and some times he dies on way to hospital, he added. Moreover, no proper attention was paid for the development of Devika which is called the Gupt Ganga (silent Ganga) as per Puranas. During rain it is difficult to visit to main Shiv temple of Purmandal which is on other side of Devika.The people even complained the problem of drinking water and power cuts as well as lack of transport facilities. Even no CCTV cameras have been installed though it is a pilgrimage centre and there can be any security risk especially during the time of mela. People, while showing concern over transport problems in the entire area said that two buses should ply from Samba to Panjtirthi, Jammu via Utterbehni, Purmandal, Kanachadkal, Bajalta, Sidhra and then to Panjtirthi and two should ply in opposite directions. Moreover, there is no proper connectivity to District Headquarter Samba, they added. There are no dustbins, no proper foot path in Purmandal, as well as bathrooms that were constructed, have not been renovated till date. He said the people face water scarcity problems in Summer and dug wells remain dry so the area needs bore wells which the authorities fail to construct.

 Bhalla decried diversionary tactics being adopted by BJP Govt to cover up their failures. “They are more talking politics and less attending to the woes of the people that have created a peculiar situation”, he said and referred to various contentious issues raked up by BJP to satiate their constituencies. He said there are inherent contradictions on important matters of governance. While the people have been left to fend for themselves, Govt indulging in real politics to escape responsibility, he maintained. “BJP has double standards as they attempt to mislead people by narrating false tales. We are surprised over the ignorance of BJP and its leadership about the ground realities in Jammu and Kashmir,” Bhalla said.People of J&K have already  shown BJP their real face  when BJP won only 81 of 280 blocks that went to the polls in the Block Development Council (BDC) elections in J&K .It managed to get only about a third of the blocks in its stronghold of Jammu division, winning 52 of 148 blocks and that too it had won 25 of 37 Assembly seats from Jammu division in 2014 elections.BJP is witnessing revolt from within with the growing realization about disenchantment of the people in Jammu, who have been betrayed and made to suffer during the nightmarish rule of the party.

The former Minister said that the BJP cadre is openly questioning about its efficacy and admitting that the people of Jammu got a raw deal under its rule. “This is acknowledgement of the good work of Congress led successive Governments, which did not only lay a strong edifice of development but also worked towards empowerment and economic emancipation of all the segments of society”, he maintained. Bhalla said that due to inept policies and administrative inexperience of the BJP, Jammu had got trapped in a dark tunnel with seemingly no way-out in sight. The mess created by the insensitive and inefficient govt manifested in worst-ever crisis and total administrative failure during last six years, he added. The former Minister assailed the BJP for denying basic minimum necessities like power and drinking water to the people of Jammu, especially during summer months. The bad patches left by the insensitive dispensation need a complete course correction, he said, expressing the hope that the Lt Governor’s administration would look after to these aspects. He particularly sought a contingency plan to meet the challenges of the ongoing monsoon based on the experiences of the previous years.

 Referring to BJP failures, Bhalla said it failed miserably in assuaging the aspirations of the people, who suffered discrimination and deprivation. The people friendly and Jammu centric initiatives taken by the previous Congress Government were undone by the discredited Govt, as there was nothing like the government, as the administrative presence on ground remained zero.He said that BJP has mastery of falsehood and fake slogans and pursued destructive and divisive politics in the country.Bhalla said that Congress always strengthen democracy and countered the anti-national and anti-democratic forces at the cost of sacrifices. He said Congress is the only secular and unifying force in the country which strengthened the secularism.Bhalla said that tremendous development had taken place during Congress regime in J&K which benefitted each and every section of society and these developments are visible even today.Since the BJP came to power all developments works have been put on hold. He said works of many important projects have been abandoned or delayed and the people are left to suffer. He attacked BJP for misleading people on every count and said that BJP will never succeed to implement its communal and divisive agenda.

 Bhalla said that J&K BJP leaders always pleaded that they are the well wishers of Jammu region but after getting huge mandate in 2014 Assembly elections, they compromised the interests of Jammu for the lust of power, but the people of Jammu are now matured enough to teach this party a lesson. He claimed that majority of people in Jammu maintained that no new developments but only facelifts of previous works were done in the area under BJP rule.“BJP was in power at the Centre and in the erstwhile J&K State too, it was easy for the party to forward issues of common masses through their Government in J&K to the Union Ministry concerned, for mitigating the sufferings of people but they took them casually,” Bhalla added. He pointed out that there was total chaos and confusion among people as BJP leadership has failed to remove peoples’ apprehensions. “On one hand, there is complete uncertainty in J&K, while on the other people are confronting with failure of the administration to solve day today problems”, he said, adding that most parts of the city are facing scarcity of basic amenities.