Union Minister Jitendra Singh Tuesday said that the “Gupkar parties” were hiding their identity in Jammu region and their candidates belonging to Congress, National Conference (NC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were campaigning in the District Development Council (DDC) polls without using their party symbol.
A statement of the union minister issued here quoted Singh while addressing a series of public meetings in Bishnah and R S Pora areas of Jammu district as saying that the candidates from Congress, NC and PDP, who were part of the Peoples’ Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) had realised that their parties had lost credibility and were apprehensive of inviting displeasure of the people of Jammu.
“It is a ridiculous and hilarious scene to watch when the candidates of these parties are found campaigning in different parts of Jammu region holding tricolour in hand and trying to befool the voters by saying that they are also supporters of Narendra Modi,” he said in the statement.
Singh said, while campaigning in the Kashmir valley, the leaders of these political parties say that they will restore Article 370, in Jammu region, they say that they favour abrogation of Article 370 done by Prime Minister Modi.
Hitting out at the earlier governments of Congress and NC for not allowing District Development Councils to be constituted in J&K, he said they did so because they wanted to keep all the authority centralised with them so that they could manipulate and embezzle funds coming from New Delhi as part of the allocation for the local bodies.
Singh said it would be through the local bodies including Panchayat and DDC members that priorities would be decided for carrying out even small development works like construction of lanes and drains instead of leaving this to the discretion of higher authorities who are not directly connected with the ground situation.