Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference on Saturday stated that spiraling food and fuel prices are hurting people across Jammu and Kashmir saying the ruling BJP was robbing the poor of their hard earned money to plug in surmounting fiscal deficit.
While expressing concern over the sky rocketing prices of petrol and LPG Party General Secretary Ali Muhammad Sagar said that the people are baffled by the soaring prices of essential commodities including petrol, LPG and other food items. He said the hike in the prices of petrol, and LPG has anguished the people across the board. It is highly distressing how the incumbent ruling BJP has chosen to profit from people’s miseries and problems, particularly at a time when the country is slowly coming out of the rampage induced by COVID-19, he said.
At a time when the country in general and J&K in particular is witnessing pervasive unemployment , systematic erosion of wages and household income , we have a government that has blindfolded itself to the runaway inflation and an unprecedented rise in the price of almost all household items, and essential commodities.
“The surge in the prices of basic essentials has not affected the poor alone; it has panicked daily wagers, salaried and business classes as well. The single motive of this government has only been to do away with the pro-poor measures. Unfortunately the salaried classes and the middle income groups are finding it difficult to run their kitchens due to the racing prices. The successive clamp downs and lock down has already squeezed the lower and middle income groups in J&K; the drastic rise in the cost of living has further compounded their miseries on different accounts,” he said adding that the ruling BJP’s tenure would be remembered for their tragedy of errors in every sphere of governance ranging from administration, development, and Job creation. “J&K it goes without saying has been the biggest ever causality of BJP’s reckless policies,” he added
Remarking on the unaccountability in J&K, Sagar said the union government was focusing on securing political hold over the region, neglecting the actual issues concerning the people in the form of governance deficit, administrative inertia and high rate of unemployment. “Lack of a popular government and falling of reigns of administration into the hands of unrelated bureaucracy; unaware of people’s grievances has further compounded the woes of people. Long term political void has been a major detrimental factor in the failure of the administration to rise up to its obligations, the delayed response to snow aftermath and widespread unaccountability in hospitals and other vital establishments of the government in Jammu and Kashmir is a point in case.” he added.
While ruing the abject failure of the administration to rise up to the expectations of the people of J&K, Sagar said, “Those who need not to be elected by people, by nature need not to be accountable to people. The absence of a popular government has impaired the capacity of local administration to take bold steps to help people recover from the impact of two successive lock downs and clampdowns since 2019, and the subsequent weather vagaries. The public trust in the coterie of unrelated officials running the government is low on account of having no stake in the decision making process. Besides that the long-term representation gap has broken the effective two ways mechanism of communication system between people and the government,” he said.
