Slathia expresses concern over developmental inertia in J&K

Former Minister and senior NC leader, Surjit Singh Slathia during public outreach programme at Vijaypur on Friday. -Excelsior/Badyal
Former Minister and senior NC leader, Surjit Singh Slathia during public outreach programme at Vijaypur on Friday. -Excelsior/Badyal

Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 21: Former Minister and senior National Conference (NC) leader, Surjeet Singh Slathia today expressed concern over acute developmental inertia and alarming jobs crunch and sought course correction to put Jammu and Kashmir on the path of recovery.
“Utility services are defunct and the people are suffering on account of power and drinking water in particular”, Slathia said during his public outreach programme, commencing this morning and slated to cover the entire Vijaypur constituency.
Observing mandatory COVID-19 protocol, Slathia interacted with the people at village Kholpur and Rattanpur of block Vijaypur Kalyal Bajwati and Pakhri in Kesso Block of Ramgarh. He urged the party cadre to stand by the people at grass roots level at these grim Corona times and help seek redressal to their problems.
“National Conference has all along remained in the forefront for safeguarding interests and dignity of the people and the role of cadre in this regard cannot be undermined”, Slathia said while exuding confidence that the party workers and functionaries will play their designated role by highlighting the issues of immense public importance at appropriate forums for expeditious redressal.
The former Minister said that the developmental scenario is witnessing unprecedented halt at ground zero and the people are suffering on all fronts. He referred to hiccups in the implementation of various programmes, saying lack of initiative and accountability has hampered the development particularly in the rural far flung areas. Same is the case with other service sectors, which are in shambles due to mis-governance, especially absence of monitoring at various levels.
Slathia said that the so-called reach out of the administration has become meaningless without assessing ground realities and redressing the problems. He said the people in rural, semi urban and urban areas are suffering and mere assurances or hand-outs won’t bail out the administration from its responsibilities. He said the scenario in far flung areas is far worse and calls for immediate Governmental attention.
Prominent among those who accompanied Slathia during his visit included Sarpanch Jasbir Singh,Tara Singh, Naib Sarpanch Jagdish Raj and the former Sarpanch Puran Chand.