Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 3: Stressing that J&K people have first claim over their natural resources, National Conference Vice-President and former chief Minister Omar Abdullah today alleged that mining contracts to outsiders were robbing locals of job opportunities, leaving them at disadvantage
“Today hardly any contract is given to a local contractor as most of the contracts and works are given to outsiders. Material also comes from outside and workers are also brought from outside,” he said, while addressing a mega Zonal workers’ convention at Tikri in Udhampur.
Giving example, Omar said that lithium has been found in the mountains of Reasi, however people will be brought from outside to extract it.
“If they were really fair, wherever this lithium comes out, there should be a battery factory so that the people here can get this benefit. But the intentions of these people are not right, they will also bring extraction companies from outside. They are building the highway and rail project so that they can easily extract the goods from the mountains of Jammu and Kashmir and take them out of here,” he alleged.
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The NC leader rued that there was very little for the people of J&K to rejoice over the victory of others in the elections held across various States in the country because it has been years now since the locals have seen polls in J&K. “We can only see the spectacle in other states but we cannot have it here. Democracy ends where J&K begins,” he said adding that people who blow the trumpet of democracy across the world do not allow it to come here.
“They have shown that they not just hate the idea of Assembly but Panchayats and ULBs as well. It’s no wonder that they might wind up DDCs as well. After all, what is the fault of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, that they are being deprived of their democratic right and they are not even being given the opportunity to elect their Assembly. On the contrary, crownless kings have been imposed on us, who take decisions related to Jammu and Kashmir but do not involve the people in these decisions,” he said.
Criticizing the Central Government and BJP leaders for misleading the country on the issue of Article 370, Omar Abdullah said: “What exactly did its revocation change for the people of J&K? What benefits did our people reap from its revocation? Contrarily it was Article 370 that gave land rights to our people. It was the very same provision that made the right to free education in J&K. Our people particularly landless, poor, and workers irrespective of their religious and regional affiliations have reaped the benefits of Article 370 while its abrogation hasn’t yielded any benefit. People are only suffering.”
On public utility deliverance, Omar said: “The name of PHE was changed to Jal Shakti. We thought that there would be a storm, now not only water but also Shakti will come, but neither water nor Shakti came, on the contrary, the supply is not getting as much as it used to be. An allegation of a scam of crores of rupees has not been made by a common man or a politician but by a senior Government officer who submitted a written letter to the CBI along with the evidence. If such accusations were made on politicians like us or on any common person, we would be in jail today, but when they are accused, their response is silence and that is their true nature.”
The convention was organized by senior party leader Abdul Ghani Malik while party general secretary Ali Muhammad Sagar, Additional General Secretary Ajay Sadhotra, provincial president Jammu Ratan Lal Gupta, Youth Provincial President Ajaz Jan, Khalid Najeeb Suhrawardy, Satwant Dogra and others were also present.
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