Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir National Conference on Tuesday expressed concern over allotment of sand mining and mineral extraction contracts to non residents of J&K saying the measure will rob employment opportunities from our youth and affect livelihood of thousands of families.
In a statement Party’s Members of Parliament Muhammad Akbar Lone and Justice (Retd) Hasnain Masoodi while expressing concern over the ‘discriminatory measures’, said last year the rights for extraction of the minerals was exclusively reserved for local contractors. “Due to the restrictions on the internet, the local contractors couldn’t participate in the on-line bidding process. From contractors to manual sand diggers, laborers to transporters, and scores of other mineral workers who are directly or indirectly associated with the extraction of minerals, all will be in peril because local contractors failed to participate in bidding as the internet was not available to them,” the duo said.
Members of Parliament said the educated youth of J&K are already suffering due to shrinking employment opportunities aggravated by measures taken on the 5th of August last year. They said the domicile policy has added to the frustration of JK youth on account of diminishing job avenues. Unavailability of a viable private sector and the ruin caused to local hospitality, handicraft and manufacturing sectors post august 5th and successive COVID-19 induced lock down had increased the trepidation of the unemployed youth of J&K.
The Members of parliament urged the government to put the new mining or extraction policy in abeyance and allow the locals to draw their sustenance from it. “The first claim on local resources rightfully belongs to local people,” they said.
Meanwhile the duo urged the J&K government to grant a six months extension to all PhD and Integrated PhD scholars whose residency period ends this year.
