Jammu, Apr 7: Accusing the ruling coalition of being neck deep in corruption, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti today alleged that Centre was shielding corrupt elements in Jammu and Kashmir.
Taking to media here today, Mehbooba alleged that everyone knows that the coalition ministers are involved in corruption at large scale but instead of taking action the Centre was shielding them.
She said that her party raised long ranging issues, including poor governance, corruption and violation of human rights in the recently concluded Assembly session, but its voice was gagged by slapping breach of privilege motions against its members. She accused ruling coalition of misusing the state institutions to their advantage.
“They own palatial houses in state as well as outside the state. PDP had questioned the source of huge money as some ministers belonged to average families. The Chief Minister preferred silence on the issue and did not make public various investigation reports,” she said.
The most astonishing fact is that quick action was taken against the leaders found in corruption at Central level, but in case of Jammu and Kashmir, Union Government seems to be shielding and promoting the corrupt politicians.
Mufti also slammed national parties for not raising their voice against the cricket scam worth millions of rupees in the state. "I feel the national parties in New Delhi have also turned a deaf ear towards corruption in J&K. I would also like to mention the name of BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) that did not utter a single word on such a big scam in Jammu and Kashmir, and it shows that they also facilitate such things in the state," said Mufti.
PDP president said that coalition government always accused PDP of playing politics in the Assembly without evidences, but this time the party provided many evidences on the floor of the House. But instead of taking action against the corrupt, the government tried to suppress the voice of opposition in both Houses of the State Legislature.
“We vehemently raised issues of development, human rights violation in Assembly and Council, instead of providing reply, our party leaders were slapped with breach of privilege motion,” averred Mehbooba Mufti adding that the government had misused the institution of Legislature along with institution of J&K Bank and Auqaf.
Mehbooba added that the government failed to provide sufficient powers to the elected Panchayat Raj Institutions even after one year.
Claiming that no one in the state was happy with the government, she added that employees of the state are on roads demanding timely re-imbursement of salaries, arrears and regularisation. Thousands of highly qualified youth of the state are unemployed and some of them were engaged on ReT, ReZ, adhoc and temporary basis on the plea that the government lacks sufficient funds. Also, NYC volunteers are on roads demanding regularization. The employees and workers are brutally beaten up instead of fulfilling their demands.
But on the other hand, the government functionaries have made hundreds of backdoor appointments. Even some posts were created just to benefit some blue eyed persons that too without advertising these posts. The coalition government has destroyed whole system, she added.
She said that there have been instances when recruitment agencies gave maximum marks to the blue eyed candidates ignoring the meritorious candidates. “PDP provided evidences on the floor of the House, but government did not admit even amid clear cut evidences of illegal backdoor appointments. What is worse that even aged and retired officers were re-engaged at the top level”.
"We are not making any baseless allegations because right now the major issues confronting the state include miss-governance, lack of development, corruption and crime," Mufti told the media persons.
"The biggest issue is of unemployment. Even employed people are agitating on the streets. Either they do not get salaries regularly or else only half the salary is given. Whether they are casual labourers, daily wagers, teachers or contractors, everyday you can see that they are protesting and are being baton charged. In reply to this, government says that they do not have sufficient funds but unfortunately on the other side there is a surge in illegal appointments," said Mufti.
Like many developing societies around the globe, Kashmir is experiencing a "youth bulge", where 71 percent of the population is under the age of 35.
 Of the large number of youth between the ages of 18 to 30 in the Kashmir Valley, an estimated 48 percent are currently unemployed.
Mehbooba further said that the common people had to run from pillar to post for getting petty works done, even ration cards are not provided to the needy persons without paying bribe to the concerned officers, not to talk of other government facilities. She said that there were clear evidences that Haji Yousuf had collected Rs 5 crores for National Conference, but no answer was provided to the opposition.
MLC Murtaza Khan, who was also present on the occasion, said that on the last day of working of the State Legislature, the government passed constitution amendment bill in the Upper House in sheer violation of constitution itself as two-third majority is needed to amend the constitution. He added that 24 MLCs should vote in favour of the bill to pass it but only 14 MLCs were present in the House on that day.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 7 Apr 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 7 Apr 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 8 Apr 2012 00:00:00 IST