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Friday, December 18, 2015

Omar dismisses Govt’s claim on NFSA as ‘brazen lie’
 
‘Whither AFSPA revocation, jobs for youth, dialogue with separatists?’
 
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
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SRINAGAR, Dec 17: National Conference acting President and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday claimed that he put his foot down against New Delhi’s plan of implementing the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in Jammu and Kashmir even as his coalition partner Congress exerted considerable pressure on him for about two years. He asserted that he put up his resistance after he realised that the NFSA was not beneficial for the people of his State.
 
“For about two years, I resisted sustained pressure from the Centre. No less a person than the UPA Chairperson Mrs Sonia Gandhi got angry with me. But I told them categorically that the Central law could not be implemented as it would not benefit the people of my State”, Omar said at a public meeting in Congress-held Shangus Assembly constituency in Anantnag district of South Kashmir. Earlier scheduled on November 24, NC’s Workers Convention in Shangus had been postponed due to the death of three local militants of Hizbul Mujahideen in Tantraypora Siligam, near Mattan, on that day.
 
“I didn’t allow implementation of NFSA despite sustained pressure from our then alliance partner, Congress, because I knew the Act was against the interests of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. I said I won’t allow this law until I was convinced it would benefit my people”, Omar said. “When Mufti Sahab took over after his sell-out to the BJP, he patted on his own back over the implementation of the NFSA. His Ministers claimed it was the biggest miracle of the PDP-BJP Government. Today people are out on the roads in every nook and corner of the State and now Mufti Sahab’s Minister says that this was a decision taken by the previous Government. That’s a brazen lie. It is ridiculous. They should either own or disown NFSA”. He alleged that the government had created “unprecedented chaos and confusion” in the State with its own self-contradictory statements.
 
Omar said that the PDP leadership had dithered from all of its “sugar-coated promises and slogans” after assuming power in March this year.
 
“After seeking votes against the BJP during the elections Mufti Sahab went to embrace the BJP and said he was doing so for the benefit of the State and its people. We were given a fancy ‘Agenda of the Alliance’ where it was promise that Mufti Sahab would bring back the power projects, get AFSPA revoked, make New Delhi talk to the Separatists and get New Delhi to open additional trade and travel routes along the LoC. What happened to those promises Mufti Sahab? Today there is no talk of AFSPA revocation. Where are Mehbooba Mufti’s placards and protests on AFSPA today? It’s astonishing how PDP has changed its entire political persona and ideology to remain in power with the BJP”, Omar added. 
 
“During the Press interaction after the opening of the Secretariat, Mufti Sahab himself said that he couldn’t convince the Prime Minister on vital issues as the Chief Minister. OK Mufti Sahab, we won’t seek answers from you on those things that are in the hands of New Delhi and the Prime Minister but at least do justice to your own basic duties as the Chief Minister of this State. You have increased power tariffs and bills while decreasing the power supply. Electricity is nowhere to be seen – entire localities are plunged into long phases of darkness while the Chief Minister is either seen in Gulmarg or Pahalgam or in the company of a few business houses who he has bent rules for”, the NC President asserted.
 
END

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