Srinagar, Jan 4: The opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Tuesday held demonstrations in Srinagar to protest “the deteriorating quality of life under the present coalition government, electricity crisis, sell-out of water and power resources and continued official repression.”
In the unique protest led by the party president Mehbooba Mufti the cadres held burning lanterns in the afternoon, to protest the state government’s “failure” in providing adequate power supply to people during winters. A large number of PDP workers joined the demonstration carrying anti-government placards and raising slogans. The rally also protested “non-availability of cooking gas, kerosene and other essential commodities.”
The demonstrators also demanded return of power projects from NHPC that “had been gifted by the National Conference from time to time to the central government in order to secure its rule.”
Party general secretary Muhammad Dillawar Mir, MLAs, Abdul Rehman Veeri, Muhammad Khalil Bandh and Muhammed Rafi Mir and other leaders including Muhammad Ashraf Mir, Saifudin Bhat, Nazir Ahmed Laway and Ms Asiya Naqash also joined the rally.
In her brief address, Mehbooba lamented what she called the failure of the state government on all fronts that had added only miseries to the people and reversed all gains the state had made on political and development fronts on political and developmental fronts in PDP’s regime.
She said her party had deliberately adopted a low profile over the past three months in the hope that the state government would have learnt some lessons from its debacle on all fronts that had resulted in unprecedented alienation and loss of precious 112 lives. She said the party had also been watching the situation in the light of the eight-point agenda announced by the union government as a guide to the state and had hoped some relief would be provided to the common man. “But the so-called agenda proved yet another cruel joke that was implemented only in breach” she said adding instead of releasing the youth and political detainees more and more were being arrested. The youth were now hounded both in and outside the state, in the process demonizing every Kashmiri as a stone-pelter, she said and added that such tactics has further enlarged the gulf between the state and the people.
Mehbooba said the power crisis represented a colossal failure of the government that had affected all sections of society. She said it seemed spreading darkness is the only policy that the NC pursues with effect otherwise it was inconceivable as to what happened to the system in just one year. She pointed out that over the past two years over 500 megawatts had been added to the state generation system but immediately after the NC led coalition assumed office they started load-shedding and have now revived the pre-2002 scenario.
The PDP president said as with the political problems of the state the NC was directly responsible for bartering away the state resources to the NHPC which was making money at the cost of state resources while we are suffering in darkness. She said while Dr Farooq Abdullah handed over seven most feasible power projects to the centre in 2000, Omar Abdullah continued the process by entering into another agreement with NHPC to give them majority stakes in three more power projects. This she said had served the most lethal blow to state’s economic prospects and reduced us to beggars who seem to be destined to live in darkness.
Mehbooba said while on the one hand power had completely disappeared, with some areas getting a daily supply of just one hour, cooking gas and kerosene had gone scarce. Same was the case with other essentials like water and food items. The government she said was hand in glove with hoarders and profiteers who were looting the common man. Even the Public distribution system, she said had almost completely collapsed as its stocks were being pilfered and sold in black market.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 4 Jan 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 4 Jan 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 5 Jan 2011 00:00:00 IST