Omar’s sops will burden next Govt:SalmanSozSrinagar: A day after the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah announced reduction of 12percent in the electricity tariff, his coalitionpartner Congress has termed the move asa poll plank, saying the move will be a burden on the succeeding government.All India Congress Committee (AICC) panel, Spokesman, Salman Anees Soz said that the Chief Minster’s announcement will have its cascading effect later which will lead to the immensehike in the electricity tariff by compensating the loss of these months.“Eventually, tariffs will rise and the government will have to collect even morerevenue to compensate for the additional losses suffered in the months leading up to the election. If you think the current power system is unacceptable, the CM’s announcement has just made it worse,” he said.Salman said that the power sector of the state was under severe crisis due to the insufficient revenue collection adding at the same time CM’s announcement will lead to more problems.“The people of J&K know that the power sector is in perpetual crisis. Insufficient revenue collection has crippled the power system. Now, with this further reduction, people will face more problems in the future. He (Chief Minister) knows tariffs are already low in J&K and our losses due to theft are huge. He will now burden the next government with a bigger unmet power bill,” he added.Regarding the reservation announcement for Paharis and Gujjars, Salman said the CM should have equally concentrated on creating job opportunities for youth.“The other major point for everybody to consider is that the finances of the state are so bad that very few government jobs are available and very often the government is unable to pay salaries and pensions of existing employees on time. Instead of creating new, well-paying job opportunities for our youth, politicians stillseem to believe that young people can be kept in the dark and dreams of jobs through reservations can help gain votes. You can have reservations but if you have very few job opportunities, the vast majority of people, including Paharis, OBCs, Gujjars etc won’t have the job opportunities that they deserve,” he said.Congress Spokesperson said the Congress had earlier raised several issuesrelated to the Paharis and Gijjars with NC which according to him has witnessed no development.“Paharis and Gujjars come from similar socio-economic backgrounds. Yet, Gujjars had reservations and Paharis did not. This is a long-standing issue. In fact, there are many issues that Pahari speaking people face that the Congress Party had been raising with the NC. But, there was no progress. Now, a few months before the elections, the CM announces 5% reservation for Paharis and2% for OBCs. Any sensible person can seethat this has less to do with genuine concern for Paharis and OBCs and more todo with the upcoming elections,” he said.Congress spokesman said that these announcements are intended to gain the vote bank for the upcoming elections.“Why was reservation not announced five month or even 2 years back? Surely, thesegroups have been living in a difficult situation for a long time. I think our youngsters are much smarter than that. How many government jobs were created in the last 6 years and how many young people are hopelessly looking for government jobs? The answer to the first question is “very few” and the answer to the second question is “far too many,” he said.
Posted on: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 06:10:05 +0000
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