Udhampur, June 13: The National Panthers Party (NPP) president and former minister Harsh Dev Singh on Tuesday led a “massive” protest in Udhampur, accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of having ruined J&K in the name of reorganisation.
The protestors, wearing black bands and carrying black flags, raised slogans of “BJP Hai Hai”, “Central Minister Go Back”, “J&K Ke Sath, Experiment Karna Band Karo”, “Students Aur Youths Ka Shoshan Karna Band Karo”, etc, the party said in a statement.
Speaking on the occasion, Harsh Dev said that Central ministers were regularly visiting J&K and holding political rallies in the UT at the taxpayers’ expense without paying back anything to the erstwhile State. “Crores of rupees had been spent on the sabbaticals of these central ministers by a cash-starved UT like J&K without it receiving any special central grants from the visiting politicians,” he said.
Singh said, “J&K’s economy had plunged to an all-time low with the unemployment rate having beaten all records, and daily rated, casuals and contractual and even the MGNREGA workers without wages for months and years together. No visiting Central minister was sure of the restoration of statehood or assembly elections in the near future. The public exchequer of J&K was being used to fund their political tours and other incessant drum beatings regarding their fictional achievements of nine years rule.”
“The college aspiring students were the most disappointed lot in view of their examination centres having been created outside the J&K UT, with the Central ministers and state administration keeping mum despite the massive public uproar,” the NPP president said.
