Srinagar: Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) on Thursday held a peaceful protest in Srinagar and marched towards the Divisional Commissioner office against the decision of government to stop subsidized ration to above poverty line category, a press release said.
The party termed the decision anti people and anti friendly and said no such decision imposed on the people of Jammu Kashmir would be acceptable.
“ Those who have decided to not supply ration to APL category should learn from the history how the scheme was launched from the time of Maharaja’s rule. They can not undo anything they want without understanding it’s repercussions on ground,” said Taj Mohiuddin, treasurer of DPAP. He said during the rule of Maharaja, shali stores were set up everywhere in Jammu and Kashmir to ensure food security to all since the UT is food deficit. He said the population of the UT has grown many folds since the times of Maharaja rule and the food production on the other side has drastically come down. “Under such circumstances, the government can not deprive people of food and it is the responsibility for every welfare state to ensure no one sleeps hungry,”he said.
Taj said the present regime is contradicting it’s claims. “While on one side it glorify the era of Maharaja and on the other hand every welfare scheme of those times is scrapped or modified to trouble common people. At the time of popular govt, the BPL families used to get seven kgs per head to the limit of 35 kgs and the APL families were getting 13kgs per head at landed cost. He said, they should implement the same scheme,”he said
The protesters later marched towards the office of Divisional Commissioner and the Provincial President Kashmir Mohammad Amin Bhatt submitted memorandum of certain demands in the larger interests of people. Vice Chairman GM Saroori said that the Jammu and Kashmir was the only state which was providing subsidized or free ration to its people and covering around 70 per cent of its population.