Srinagar, Oct 29: PDP Saturday said the state government, as usual, has been ‘resorting to lies and misinformation’ on all important issues, the latest exposure being about the water tax that was claimed to be recovered from the NHPC.
In a statement, the party president Mehbooba Mufti said it was now more than clear that NC government has sacrificed the interests of the state and made a total sell-out be it legislative council seats, ministerial berths, water resources or power projects for their own personal luxuries.
Mehbooba said the position of the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has become completely untenable in the wake of the shocking disclosure on water tax as much as his attempts to cover the political corruption in his party and government. She said the open war between various coalition partners and their factions has landed the state in an unprecedented chaos with the Chief Minister’s own position becoming ridiculous with every passing day.
Mehbooba said that government’s ‘lie’ about setting up of a judicial probe for investigation into the political corruption and the mysterious death of the close associate of Abdullah family, Haji Yousuf, has been nailed by no less than the Congress state president Saif-ud-Din Soz who has questioned the imaginary judicial probe ordered by the state government. She said no amount of cover-up could absolve the Chief Minister and his family of their culpability in absence of free and fare investigation. On the other hand the ‘lies’ about revenue collected from the imaginary water tax from NHPC has been nailed by no less than the Chairman of NHPC Sirivastava, who in his performance report for current year claimed that the state government had waived off water tax worth Rs 453 crores chargeable from NHPC, which means more loss to the already crumbling power sector of the state.
Mehbooba said the state government’s claims on charging tax from the NHPC was suspect from day one as the NC under Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah had been transferring most viable projects to the Corporation one after another. The claims made by the state government about the expected revenue from the proposed water tax should normally have been reflected in the state budget which was never done and now the NHPC chairman has convincingly exposed the lies spoken by the government from time to time. She said on the one hand the state government has been selling out water resources for political power for Abdullah family and on the other has burdened the public by increasing the power tariff without even ensuring a decent level of electric supply. She said the state government has lost its credibility on all fronts and it is now impossible for anybody to take seriously whatever it claims especially after the U-turn on AFSPA.
Reiterating the party’s stand on revocation of laws like AFSPA, Mehbooba said that these laws have lost their relevance and utility with the improvement in situation and they will have to go sooner than later. She asked the Centre to reach out to the people of Jammu & Kashmir to give them a sense of belonging by making the system more accountable like in other parts of the country.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 29 Oct 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 29 Oct 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 30 Oct 2011 00:00:00 IST