Jammu, Feb 23: Accusing the Jammu and Kashmir administration of failure to address the basic issues of the people, National Panthers Party (NPP) on Sunday said the public were fatigued with the “bureaucratic and proxy” rule and called for early restoration of democracy in the Union Territory.
NPP chairman and former minister Harsh Dev Singh said elected representatives alone could appreciate the concerns of the public as against the “outside bureaucrats” who hardly have any accountability to the people.
“The general masses were fatigued with the bureaucratic rule. There is a need to end the proxy rule (of BJP) and early restoration of democracy in the erstwhile state,” he said addressing a public meeting in Domana and Gho Manhasan here.
He said the Advisors to Lieutenant Governor G C Murmu and secretaries were organising ‘public hearing’ campaigns but these had “failed to inspire the people in view of their lack of productivity”.
“The cosmetic public hearing exercise by the advisors and secretaries and the sojourns of central ministers had failed to inspire the masses who missed the much needed delivery on the ground,” Singh said.
He appealed the Lt Governor to put on the official website of various departments the details of representations received in various public interaction programmes, issues discussed therein and action taken in pursuance thereof so as to make the ‘public hearings’ relevant and meaningful.
Claiming that bureaucratic rule in the erstwhile state had proved a “flop show”, Singh claimed people were fast losing faith in the present dispensation which had failed to address even their basic concerns.
“With people across the new UT protesting on a day-to-day basis for uninterrupted power and adequate water supply, restoration of roads and other essential services, there did not appear to be any takers for their shrill cries,” he said.
The NPP leader said the public interaction campaigns of advisors and secretaries had also proved to be “exercises in futility”, like the two successive ‘Back to Village’ programmes earlier.
Decrying the withdrawal of election notification for vacant Panchayat seats after having announced the poll dates, Singh said there were several other instances to show that the present regime was moving in fits and starts accompanied by reverses.
“People were repeatedly assured of domicile law for J&K in public meetings by helmsmen and BJP leaders only to be told in the Parliament that the Centre had no proposal in this regard,” he said.
