Srinagar, July 15: Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday said it is time that the people of the state judged political parties on the agenda and track records rather than hollow slogans and brand names.
 Addressing a public meeting at Kralpora in frontier district of  Kupwara Mehbooba said, “The emergence of PDP has provided people of the state with an alternative to the exploitation and deceit practiced by NC for many decades. It is for the people now to decide on the basis of what they gave to NC and what they received in return and applied a same standard to PDP while making political preferences”, she added.
 Mehbooba said the PDP is once again seeking the support of the people for a total change in the system. “Our vision is clear that we don’t want the political problem of JK to be swept under the carpet and transfer this problem to the next generation. We want to take the resolution issue head on and get it resolved with the support of people and through democratic means,” she said.
 “Side by side with this we want to establish a clean and transparent system in which any party that rules the state is held accountable by the institutions which have at present been rendered defunct,” she added.
 Mehbooba said corruption is ruling the roost and inefficiency of the government has taken the state to the brink of collapse. “Our vision of change envisages an accountability system that works independently irrespective of which party is in power” she said.
 Explaining various features of the PDP’s vision for the state Mehbooba said areas like Kupwara which as a result of partition have been relegated to the margins of developmental process would regain their pre partition status. She said full operationalization of the Karnah road or the Keran link could open up new avenues of trade and tourism for these areas.
 She said though Kupwara has traditionally voted for the NC but it has only resulted in ruling party taking it for granted and not introducing any special schemes to improve the condition of people there. She said PDP has a blue print for development of all such neglected areas and we would see to it that the forest and mineral wealth of these areas are put to right use for local development.
 Mehbooba said NC fooled people and sought votes for Azadi, Rai Shumari and Autonomy but made decisions that its leadership suited only to gain power. “They made people to offer sacrifices for decades, grabbed their votes and then sold out the interests of the state to cement their own relations with whatever powers ruled in Delhi. They even aligned with the BJP which has abrogation of Article 370 as one of its main agenda and still claimed that they would get autonomy to the state.
 Even a deaf, dumb and blind person cannot fall prey to NC’s hollow promises after so many  U-turns”, she said.
 Mehbooba said in the last election the NC for once clearly said that it had nothing to do with the political problems of the state or the Kashmir issue to which incidentally this party’s contribution has been the biggest. They promised Bijli, Sadak, Pani and employment. “Electricity has disappeared while tariffs have gone up multifold, most roads present a devastated look and water crisis has sharpened even this year when we have had good rains,” she said.
 Mehbooba said the number of educated jobless youth  has crossed six lakh and while there are according to reports about one lakh vacancies in the government it self. She said it was natural for people to believe that government had kept these vacancies up its sleeves either to sell them against money or political favours. She said backdoor entries into the government have once again become a norm and hundreds of retired officers are being reemployed almost as a routine.
 Advising the people to learn to make a distinction between good and bad, Mehbooba said “You are the masters of this place and it is in your hands to elect your representatives”.
 “In 2002 we came before people with a limited agenda of providing them relief from atrocities and provide them security of life and honour. We got just sixteen MLA’s and we achieved more than we had promised,” she claimed. 

Lastupdate on : Sun, 15 Jul 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 15 Jul 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 16 Jul 2012 00:00:00 IST