Srinagar, Apr 19: A day after Union Minister and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad snubbed state government for alleged slow pace of development, the ruling National Conference Thursday hit back, saying “such these utterances tantamount to provoking people against the government led by Omar Abdullah.”
Talking to Greater Kashmir, senior National Conference leader Dr Mustafa Kamal said these remarks create bad blood between coalition partners and send wrong signal among the masses.
“The previous government headed by me had initiated more than 1500 developmental works in various sectors including Education, Health, Roads and Buildings across the state. Work on various projects remained incomplete while some have been stopped midway,” Azad had said at a rally in Bilawar Jammu Wednesday.
Kamaal said that remarks of Union Minister tantamount to raising public sentiment against the government.
“Instead of going public against the government, he should have got these issues raised in internal forums like Coordination Committee (CC) and Cabinet, through their representatives. There are representatives of Congress in Coordination Committee and Cabinet and even the CC is headed by state Congress chief Prof. Saifuddin Soz,” Kamaal said.
“I don’t think there was any logic or justification in going public against the state government as majority of the ministers in the Cabinet are from Congress. He (Azad) could have even raised his concerns with Dr. Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah here as well as in New Delhi,” he said.
Hitting back at Azad, Kamaal said, “Let Congress say which 1500 projects were started in Azad’s tenure. I don’t have any grudge against Azad Sahab, but I want to know which projects he is talking about?”
The NC leader did not stop here and said that announcements made by Azad vis-à-vis creation of new districts and establishing degree colleges was not enough as they are still devoid of proper infrastructure.
“Even today, we are on the job of finding money for setting up infrastructure for newly carved districts. Mere announcements are not enough as far as new districts are concerned as it needs of crores for setting up proper infrastructure and staff for them. Even the new colleges opened during Azad’s reign are still lacking infrastructure,” he said.
Pertinently, the previous coalition government led by Ghulam Nabi Azad had created eight new districts and established 18 new degree colleges in the state.

Lastupdate on : Thu, 19 Apr 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 19 Apr 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 20 Apr 2012 00:00:00 IST