Former BJP minister and MLA, Sukhnandan Kumar, today embarrassed his own BJP-PDP coalition government saying that “the previous regime was better” than this government and that “discrimination continues” against Jammu region.
Participating in discussion on Budget in the Legislative Assembly today, the BJP MLA from Marh, who was PHE and Irrigation Minister in the Mufti Sayeed Government, took on the government and said, “The assurances given in the House are not fulfilled and therefore there is no purpose in speaking and raising issues here”.
This infuriated Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu who then left the House. Upon this, the BJP MLA said that the minister is not interested so he will not speak. However, he was persuaded to continue.
“This government abolished toll tax on all Horticulture produce like apple and other products, which is predominantly a Kashmir industry, but it gave nothing to Jammu’s agriculture sector,” the BJP member said adding that agriculture sector is predominantly in Jammu region.
He said, “The government has totally ignored the farmers of Jammu region as nothing is there in the budget for them as compared to their counterparts associated with Horticulture sector.”
He added, “Then you say that we talk of discrimination with Jammu region. You tell us what is this? Is this not a discrimination?”
He said, “The previous government was better than this regime”. The government had assured to abolish toll tax on Basmati rice but that has not been done, the former minister said.