Accusing National Conference (NC) of working towards complete disempowerment of Kashmiris, senior PDP leader and Member Parliament, Tariq Hameed Karra Sunday said Kashmir has become a victim of worst kind of discrimination perpetuated by Omar Abdullah’s anarchic regime.“Brazen regional discrimination by the State Government in appointment of around 9000 contractual teachers under special recruitment drive should prove an eye-opener for Kashmiris. It is now amply clear that how Omar Abdullah-led regime is slowly and steadily pushing Kashmiris into perpetual economic subjugation,” Karra said in a statement issued here today.
“To the shock and dismay of every Kashmiri, the advertisement issued in local dailies on 5th July 2014, shows that out of 8475 posts of contractual teachers, 5396 are for Jammu region, 2960 for Kashmir and 119 for Ladakh,” he said and added that one fails to understand what criteria the state government has used to justify such brazen discrimination in allocation of posts. “Going by population ratio Kashmir should have got more posts than Jammu region. If not that, at least the distribution of posts should have been on 50:50 basis so that justice was done with the unemployed youth in all the regions,” Karra said.
He said the worst thing is that while around 1300 contractual teacher posts have been advertised for Jammu district, there are just 80 posts for district Srinagar. “This is the height of injustice and discrimination with the city’s youth especially the girls some of whom have been waiting for a job for years so that they can get a decent marriage proposal,” he said and added that while unemployment and economic deprivation is a major concern in Srinagar, the state government seems to be hell bent upon making the things worse for the educated unemployed youth of the city. “If this sense of injustice and discrimination is not addressed immediately, it could have dangerous consequences,” he said.
“I really feel pity for the silence of the so-called political representatives of Srinagar when the rights of city’s youth are being usurped in such a brazen manner? Why are the legislators of Srinagar keeping mum on this barefaced discrimination? Has power made them so feeble that except doing lip-service to the people of Srinagar, they can’t muster the courage to stand up to this blatant show of disparity by their government?” Karra said and added that it is now very clear that by resorting to such biased policies towards Kashmiri youth, Omar Abdullah-led government is trying to push them into another phase of death and destruction as they are left with no other option.
“Right from the day Omar Abdullah assumed power, Kashmir is getting step-motherly treatment in every sphere with the blessings of the Chief Minister,” he said and added that NC leaders seem to be taking revenge from the people of Kashmir for having discarded this exploitative party.
Quoting other instances of disparity with Kashmir perpetuated by Omar Abdullah-led government, Karra said out of 676 sub-health centres to be setup under NRHM, 429 are in Jammu region and 247 for Kashmir with Srinagar getting none. “Similarly, out of 953 schools proposed for upgradation, 600 are in Jammu, 370 in Kashmir and 30 in Ladakh. Under Central Road Fund (CRF) while Jammu has got a whopping Rs 208. 81 crores during the last 3 years, Kashmir has got just Rs 79 crore. Under the 10th phase of PMGSY Jammu has got Rs 2531.58 crore whereas Kashmir has been given just Rs 1554.12 crore. Out of 659 administrative units cleared by the Cabinet in February this year, 337 went to Jammu, 274 to Kashmir and 48 to Ladakh. Out of the 38 villages recently approved for inclusion in backward list, 30 are in Jammu and only 8 in Kashmir. Recently 34 ventilators were installed in district and sub-district hospitals of Jammu region while the number is only 16 in Kashmir,” Karra said and ended that the list of discrimination with Kashmir seems to be endless.
He said even in district plan allocation thee is massive disparity in fund allocation and while in 2011-12 plan outlay Srinagar got Rs 55.8 crore, Jammu walked away with Rs 99.8 crore. Similarly, for the year 2013-14, Srinagar got Rs 63.47 crore while Jammu got a whopping Rs 109.47 crore, he said and added people of Kashmir are simmering with resentment over the injustices meted out to them by the NC-Congress coalition regime and they are anxiously waiting for the movement to get rid of them forever. (GNS)