Excelsior Correspondent
POONCH, Apr 11: The Jammu and Kashmir Youth National Conference today staged a strong protest against arbitrary hike in fuel prices and soaring unemployment in Jammu and Kashmir.
The protest was led by Dr Sukhvinder Singh City president Youth Poonch and Ishaq Malik Block president YNC. The protesting YNC functionaries holding placards in their hands assembled at Bus Stand Poonch and raised slogans against the steep hike in petroleum products and other essential commodities.
Talking to the media, Dr Sukhvinder Singh said that the lower and middle class families are feeling the pinch of inflation more than anyone else.
“Constant price rise is hitting common man where it hurts the most and the administration has failed to take meaningful steps to curb the trend. The political instability and governance deficit have already wreaked havoc on our people, particularly daily wagers, hawkers, labourers, middle, BPL and salaried classes and depleted their saving, the soaring prices of essential commodities in the face of salary cuts and job losses have dealt a double blow for the common man, especially those from the middle and lower-middle income groups and below poverty line (BPL) segments of society,” he said.
Singh said the Government was punishing people, particularly poor farmers, transporters, traders, daily wagers, hawkers, BPL, middle and salaried classes for its own incompetence.
“The Government had turned into a profit-seeking entity with little to no consideration for our poor and disadvantaged sections of the society. The crisis triggered by shortage of these vital public utility services has compounded the predicaments of the consumers,” he said.
He said the Government was blind to the predicaments suffered by people in Poonch district. “From roads to education, safe drinking water to livelihood , our people are hankering for everything. The steep rise in unemployment, development deficit, administrative inertia and misgovernance have increased the day to day maladies of our people. The number of job hunting youth in Poonch is increasing with each passing day. The situation is far from redemption. The laidback attitude of the administration has created a crisis like situation in the frontier district of Poonch,” he said.
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