Srinagar, May 06: People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Youth President and parliamentary candidate for the Srinagar constituency, Waheed Ur Rehman Parra on Monday said his party will “rigorously” pursue the return of power projects from the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) and will leave no stone unturned to press the government in the parliament to return “our” power projects if voted in the coming elections.
“We will fight to reclaim our resources and will leave no stone unturned to ensure that they are returned to us. Under the leadership of PDP President Mehbooba Mufti Sahiba, the youth of Jammu and Kashmir are determined to fight for their rights and the betterment of their homeland,” Parra said while addressing public meetings in several areas of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district.
He urged the people of the state to stand united in this endeavour and support the party’s efforts to “reclaim what rightfully belongs” to them. Among the people of the state, the issue of power projects is the prime issue of their survival because everything these days depends on power, he added.
Parra said, “Only by reclaiming these projects can the dream of free electricity for our people be realised. PDP has from the very beginning been against such a surrender of state resources and rejected the proposal of handing over Ratle when it was in power. It goes to the credit of PDP that it made the people of Jammu and Kashmir aware of their rights which had been given away at their back by previous governments since they were working only as power brokers and commission agents.”
The PDP leader demanded that the Centre should return power projects to Jammu and Kashmir without wasting any further time so that hundreds of crores of rupees spent on the import of electricity are saved. “Exploitation of water resources of the Jammu and Kashmir by NHPC appears not to be for the benefit of people of the state,” he said.