Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, Sept 22: Former Chief Minister and senior Congress leader and Raja Sabha MP, Ghulam Nabi Azad, today met a few delegations and some Congress leaders during his visit to Anantnag.
Azad who today visited Anantnag had sought permission to visit KP road, Pahalgam and Anantnag district hospital but was not allowed to visit these places. He visited residence of Congress president G A Mir who is under house arrest in Jammu.
Several delegations met Azad at Mir’s residence. These included some Congress leaders including former legislator Gulzar Ahmad Wani and other party workers. They briefed him on the current situation in the State.
A delegation from Taxi operators and Ponywallas from Pahalgam area met him and apprised about the problems faced by them due to clampdown and lack of tourists at the famous tourist resort.
The shopkeepers of Anantnag and Pahalgam also met the Congress leader and gave him the detailed account of situation in the area and problems faced by them since August 5.
A delegation of the contractors of the area also met him and briefed him about the problems faced by them. They told the Congress leader that Government has failed to release the payment of their pending bills.
He later visited the residence of senior leader of the party Mohammad Abdullah Nadaf who is not feeling well. The people of the area met him at his residence and shared their view point regarding the current situation.
He will visit Baramulla tomorrow where he is scheduled to meet some fruit growers and other members from the business community. He is also scheduled to meet some Congress leaders and workers in the town.
Azad was allowed by the Supreme Court to visit 4 districts of the Valley. The SC had made his visit subject to conditions which included that he cannot do any political activities during his visit as the Government had pleaded before the Apex Court that it can lead to public disorder in the Valley.
Earlier, Azad was disallowed to visit Kashmir twice. He had also arrived at Srinagar Airport along with former Congress president Rahul Gandhi but they were disallowed.
Meanwhile, sources told Excelsior that security personnel deployed for Azad’s security are harassing and questioning the people who come to meet him. They said that they are unnecessarily checked multiple times which discourages them from meeting him.
Sources said that during Azad’s interaction with the delegations he was told that education sector is worst hit as students are not attending the schools due to current situation in Kashmir.
They said that labourers and people from lower middle class met Azad and told him that they are facing immense problems due to current situation in Kashmir. They added that the taxi drivers have lost their jobs as the owners have disengaged them in the absence of any work.
The Congress leader said that Government has not released payments to contractors and they are facing immense hardships.
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