Jammu, June 12: Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) on Monday protested in Jammu and submitted the memorandum of demands to the Divisional Commissioner Jammu seeking his immediate intervention to address the growing public concerns over the curtailment of ration, price rise, rising electricity bills, CUET exams, and “outsourcing of local minerals to outsiders”.
The protest, according to a party statement issued here, was led by senior leadership including R S Chib, G M Saroori, Jugal Kishore Sharma and others.
“The people of Jammu and Kashmir have been pushed to the walls. While on one side, unemployment is on the rise, on the other side, there is a steep rise in the prices of essential commodities. It is hurting the economic prospectus of common people,” Chib said.
“As if it was not enough, the government has also curtailed the scale of ration to the APL category people which has impacted them adversely and forced them to buy rice in the open market at exorbitant rates,” he added.
The DPAP workers later marched towards the Divisional Commissioner’s office where they submitted the memorandum for demands. They demanded immediate rollback of all the policies of the government which allows outsourcing of resources.
“No resources shall be outsourced at the cost of local people. The people of Jammu and Kashmir have the first right over its resources, these resources have not been only building our economy but were fetching employment to thousands of people,” Saroori said.
The protesters also asked to exempt the people from electricity charges who have meagre income. “Due to mismanagement of the National Testing Agency in conducting CUET exams for admission in graduate and post-graduate courses in Jammu and Kashmir, we demand that for this year CUET should not be made applicable for students of J&K and requesting to allow the students to take admissions in different colleges and Universities of J&K on the previous pattern,” Jugal Kishore Sharma said.
“We strongly oppose the decision of imposition of property tax and request for its immediate roll back, also old age pension must be given and kerosene oil and sugar should be introduced again,” Saroori said.