Srinagar, Jan 31 : Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Thursday has slammed national conference vice President Omar Abdullah over his statement on power projects, stating that NC should remain silent on the issue if they are not able to join forces with the PDP and other stake holders in seeking these power projects back from Delhi. Reacting to Omar Abdullah’s recent statement in which had termed the handing Ratle Power Project to NHPC a Sellout, senior PDP leader and former minister Naeem Akhtar said that while PDP has from the very beginning been against such surrender of state resources and rejected the proposal of handing over Ratle when it was in power. The PDP Government had prepared for its takeover by the JK Power Development Corporation.
He added that it is ironic that now national conference is trying to brazen out the loot it facilitated with the brute majority in the state assembly. “It began with the Indus Water Treaty- the first sharing of water between the dominions of India and Pakistan but the then Prime Minister of the state was at that time neither consulted nor did he find anything wrong in this. Then it started with Salal and ended with joint ventures under Omar Abdullah. In between when NC in 1996 came to power having 60 seats in the assembly, Farooq Abdullah gave away power projects as a price of Omar Abdullah’s continuation in the BJP led government as a junior minister. NC handed electric power to Delhi in order to secure its political power and monopoly in the state,” Akhtar said.
He added that it goes to the credit of PDP that it made the people of Jammu and Kashmir aware of their rights which had been given away at their back by National Conference since they were working only as power brokers and commission agents. It is after 2002 that these issues are being debated in Jammu and Kashmir whether it is JK Bank, extension of central laws or sell out of power projects.
Akhtar said that it is time for everybody to rise above politics and launch a joint campaign in all the three regions of the state because at the end of the day, it is everybody whether he is living in Jammu, Kashmir or Ladakh who is suffering due to the loss of state’s water resources. “We need to rise like one man instead of fighting between themselves. We have to get these power projects from the centre and we must join hands to do that. It is the people of the state whether they are Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs or Buddhists who suffer from load shedding in cold winters of Kashmir and hot Summers of Jammu or in remote areas of Ladakh,” Akhtar said.
The PDP leader added that among the people of the state, the issue of power projects is the prime issue of their survival because everything these days depends on power. “However, it is unfortunate that NC is playing politics over the state’s worsening power scenario and if the party is not brave enough to acknowledge is anti-state role and apologise to people for the same, it must at least stay silent on the issue,” Akhtar said.
