The Sikh community Thursday threatned to launch an agitation against the PDP- BJP government for failing to give minority status to them and also fulfill their other demands.According to KNS correspondent, All Parties Sikh Coordination Committee (APSCC) chiarman jagmohan Singh Raina told mediapersons here there the chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed did not fulfill his promise with them which were made before Assembly elections.
“We gave full support to PDP in the Assembly elections across the state, and the PDP made sure that they will fulfill all our demands after coming to power. However, none of our demands including extending Minority Act status to Sikhs living in the state, have not been fulfilled so far,” Raina said.Raina said that switched over to PDP only when Mufti Sayeed assured them that he will extend National Minority Act to the state.“We were traditional National Conference supporters but when Mufti Sayeed assured us to extend Minority Act, I appealed Sikh community to vote for PDP legislators. Our votes are decisive and helped PDP legislators to win in four Valley constituencies including, Batamaloo, Amirakadal , Tral and Barramulla,” he said.
However, he alleged that Mufti was following the footsteps of his predecessors. “Many a times we tried to meet Mufti sahab to apprise him about our pertaining issues but to no avail,” he said.He said that APSCC had written several letters to the chief minister and the other ministers asking them to fulfill their demands and a deadline of 20 days was set in this regard. However, the deadline period is already over but still then there is no action from the state government, he said.“We continue to suffer as we did during the previous coalition government of National Conference and Congress. This is the second Durbar Move of the present government and it seems government is buying time when it comes to fulfilling of demands raised by the Sikh community” he said.He threatened that Sikhs would carry out a sustained agitation program against the government. “We will stage dharna in Srinagar, Jammu and other districts of the state. Dharna will also be staged outside the residence of the legislators of the PDP who won the 2014 assembly elections with our votes,” he said.Besides the extension of Minority Act in the state, Sikhs also demanded filling up of vacant posts of Punjabi teachers and lecturers in the schools and colleges of the state.
“At the same time there is dire need of starting the Punjabi department at the University of Kashmir. This would lead to the promotion of Punjabi language in the state since the language is one of the recognized languages of the state” he said.APSCC said that when the Ministry of Minority Affairs announced some schemes for Kashmir Pandit community despite the fact that this community “does not” fall within the ambit of minorities in India. “It shows that some secret agenda is being pursued by the central government while keeping the national policy at bay. We demand an enquiry in the matter so that the confusion on this issue is removed,” Raina added.Raina also alleged that the regional parties have utterly failed in giving due political representation to Sikhs in Jammu & Kashmir. “Political representation to the Sikhs would ensure that the problems are projected in right manner and some solution is found out.” (KNS)