New Delhi: Union minister Jitendra Singh on Wednesday demanded a thorough probe in the spending of central funds by successive governments in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir which was meant to be placed at the disposal of local body representatives.
He also accused “Gupkar parties” of having all these years denied “self-rule” and “autonomy” to the grassroot local bodies even though these parties always kept this at the top of their political manifesto.
Singh, the Minister of State for Personnel, said both National Conference and PDP as well as the Congress should explain to the people of Jammu & Kashmir the reason why they did not allow constituting and holding elections to District Development Councils for 70 years, which are being held now for the first time.
“To those who ask what Narendra Modi or Amit Shah has done, my single sentence answer, in the immediate context, would be that they have given District Development Councils to Jammu & Kashmir for the first time after independence,” he said.”There has to be a thorough probe about how the successive governments in the erstwhile state had spent the central fund which was meant to be placed at the disposal of local body representatives but that was not done,” Singh said.
Accusing the Gupkar Alliance parties of democratic, constitutional and moral impropriety, Singh asked what right do they have to continuously harp on the theme of self-rule and autonomy for themselves and their families when they were not ready to extend the same privilege at grass root level.
Not only this, he said, these parties did not even allow the implementation of the 73rd and 74th amendments of the Constitution, which would have granted the panchayat and other local body elected representatives direct access to central grants.
The People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration or Gupkar alliance is an amalgam of various political parties of Jammu and Kashmir. It has sought the restoration of Article 370, which accorded special status to the erstwhile state.
Singh said the partners in the Gupkar alliance are working at cross purposes with each other and would eventually end up cutting into each other’s roots.
“The more they try to push forward their newfound narrative, the more they would be exposing themselves before the people of Jammu & Kashmir and that of India,” he said.
