Srinagar, July 27: Terming District Development Board meetings an attempt to hoodwink the masses, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party legislators Tuesday boycotted the meeting for Pulwama district and held protest against the government for its ‘failure’ to protect lives of people.
Reports said fearing protests by locals of the district against human rights abuses, the meeting was held in the outskirts of Srinagar city near Panthachowk in Entrepreneurship Development Institute.
As soon as the meeting began, all the four PDP MLAs of the district stood up and resorted to shouting anti-government slogans.
“On one hand killings of innocent people have been going unabated and on the other hand development activities have come to standstill since formation of National Conference-led coalition Government. In such circumstances there is no reason to convene DDB meeting”, shouted a PDP MLA while coming out of the meeting, adding, “Such meetings are only a drama to befool the people. We don’t want to be party to such meetings.”
PDP MLAs Muhammad Khalil Bandh, Sayed Bashir, Zahoor Ahmed Mir and Mushtaq Shah shouted slogans against the government. “What is the fun of holding such meeting when government is not able to take even a single decision on its own”, shouted another PDP MLA.
PDP MLAs said that government has been holding such meetings just to divert attention of the people from other important issues.
Talking to Greater Kashmir, Muhammad Khalil Bandh said that in present scenario when government has initiated a policy of large scale arrests of youth there is no fun to organize or participate in the meeting. Bandh also alleged that step-motherly attitude was being meted out with Pulwama district in allocation of developmental funds.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 27 Jul 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 27 Jul 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:00:00 IST