Sagar decries ‘lack of development, employment opportunities’ in Chenab region
‘Won’t adopt pick and choose approach while serving people of the state'
Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir National Conference general secretary Ali Muhammad Sagar on Friday decried “lack of basic civic facilities Chenab region” saying the deficit in the region “deflates the tall claims of incumbent administration on equitable development of the state”.
Concluding the weeklong tour of the Chenab region, Sagar said the people living in the arduous region “have been left to fend for themselves”.
Although the area is rich in natural resources including hydroelectric power, minerals like gypsum and sapphire, which have been filling the coffers of the government, Sagar however said that when it comes to providing the benefit of these resources to the locals, “the successive governments after 2015 have miserably failed to invest into the infrastructure, health and education sectors of the region”.
He said the area also faced hours of power cuts.
“The region lacks in education, health, road infrastructure and other sectors. Nothing substantial was done to give impetus to the development prospects of the region,” he said.
Sagar said the region had been “at the receiving end due to the myopic approach of the successive governments after 2015”.
“The governance deficit during the past few years has accumulated the problems of people in the region. The incumbent governor administration has failed to come up with the corrective measures for putting the state in particular the Chenab and Pir Panchal region back on the track of development,” he said.
Roads in the regions were “battered” as per Sagar and the inter-regional connectivity in the region “poor”.
He alleged the region lacked basic amenities and the people of the region had to move to Jammu or Srinagar to get treatment for basic ailments.
“The neonatal, child care facilities are poor.”
Sagar said the people of the region were “feeling threatened by politics of hate and communal divide being thrust upon them”.
“The people of all the three regions and faiths are genuinely concerned at the attempts being made to generate regional divide and engineer communal polarization for ulterior political motives,” he said adding that this gap needed to be bridged by strengthening mutual understanding and cementing the bonds of amity and brotherhood.
Chenab region he said was endowed with its own conventional and cultural diversity.
He said the topographical structure of the region connects the rest of the regions of state with Himachal, Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh itself and the need of the hour was to connect the region with the adjoining areas so that it is able to get the dividends of its geographical position.
Sagar said the NC leadership had “maintained that no sooner the party forms a strong mandated government it will take care of regional & sub-regional aspirations”.
“We won’t adopt the pick and choose approach while serving the people of state; instead we will take a holistic view and address the wider problems the region is facing. Our regional autonomy document will be our template in this direction,” he said.
He said the National Conference had “always believed in strengthening the amity and brotherhood in the state” and there were “forces working overtime to destabilize the pluralistic stability of the state.”
NC, Sagar said, was “ready to make any sacrifice whatsoever to ensure the ethos of the state is not disturbed with”. \
He said the “deliberate attempts are being made to create fissures among different communities for vote bank politics in the Chenab Valley, but the people of the area understand these machinations and will not allow them to succeed”.
“People have lately understood the significance of NC for the progress of state. People have understood how BJP, Congress deprived Doda and Kishtwar districts of development and employment,” he said.
KV News
