Excelsior Correspondent
KALAKOTE Apr 5: National Conference today pledged to empower Jammu youth, who have been neglected by the BJP during its misrule in Jammu and Kashmir, by reviving and implementing the initiatives taken earlier for their empowerment.
“BJP pushed the Jammu youth to wall and it is now for the National Conference to transform their dejection into a new hope by generating jobs and promoting avenues of employability”, Provincial President Devender Singh Rana said while addressing workers at Kalakote and Sunderbani in Rajouri district.
Accompanied by senior leader and former Minister Ajay Kumar Sadhotra and State Secretary Th Rachpal Singh, Rana concluded his three day visit to the border districts of Poonch and Rajouri after addressing a series of meetings as part of the campaign in favour of the Congress candidate Raman Bhalla for Jammu-Poonch Lok Sabha Constituency.
Rana said that insincerity of the previous dispensation towards youth got exposed when the landmark initiatives like employability and tackling unemployment under various innovative measures taken during the Omar Abdullah led Government were abandoned soon after 2014 elections.
In this context he referred to the employability programmes like SKEPWY, Udaan and Himayat and said these could have brought revolutionary change on the employment front but for the negative approach of the BJP together with the PDP.
“Youth from J&K are second to none provided given the opportunities to make their mark in the most competitive and lucrative sectors and launching their own ventures”, Rana said and added that the National Conference will take forward the mission of empowering youth with sincerity of purpose.
Referring to obtaining scenario of political instability across the state, the Provincial President said National Conference alone can fill the vacuum with the support of the people and the party’s visibility in all the three regions. He said the peoples’ aspirations can be met by empowering them to take their own decisions. He said regional autonomy could be the mechanism to empower the people at regional and sub-regional levels. He said the party is committed to grant regional autonomy to all the regions and their sub-regions.
He said regional autonomy would enable larger public participation in the decision making at local levels. Such an arrangement would also help in fixing priorities in respect of developmental schemes as per local needs and strengthening planning process at micro level in true democratic spirit. This concept will, in fact, generate a sense of involvement among the people, he added.
Addressing the gatherings, former minister Ajay Kumar Sadhotra urged the cadre to close their ranks and get ready for meeting the challenges faced to the state.
He said the people of the state, especially those in the Jammu region, have understood the game-plan of reactionary forces, as they saw for themselves how personal agenda superseded public interest during three years of misrule and governance deficit. He said Jammu region in particular remained at the receiving end due to BJP’s lackadaisical attitude towards development and implementation of various welfare schemes.
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