Last Updated on August 24, 2021 at 5:29 pm
To discuss the further course of action on demanding restoration of special status from the central government, People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) is holding discussions at the house of senior National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah.
Gupkar Alliance includes six parties including Mehbooba Mufti’s PDP from Kashmir that seek restoration of Article 370 and statehood.
The meeting started at alliance chairman Farooq Abdullah’s residence at Gupkar here at 11 am.
Apart from the heads of the constituent parties, several middle and lower rung leaders are also participating in the meeting.
Muzaffar Shah who is the senior vice president of Awami National Conference said that the agenda of the meeting is to launch a mass contact programme to make people understand how abrogation of Article 370 will affect them. He said that the agitation will be under the framework of democracy and no one can stop the alliance.
An official statement by PAGD read “suppression of civil liberties and democratic rights continues unabated. Attack on democratic rights under the draconian laws like UAPA/PSA continues as hundreds of people remain under detention without even charges being framed. New orders are being passed like non-clearance for passports and government services to anyone involved in ‘law and order’ or ‘stone pelting cases’. This negates the principle of natural justice by equating a police report with being guilty and being denied all these services. Jurisprudence underlines that everyone is innocent till proven guilty”.
Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, spokesperson PAGD said making the status of Permanent Residents of erstwhile state redundant, thereby, the protection of jobs and land rights were snatched arbitrarily which deepened the sense of insecurity in the regions and communities.
“Economy of the region is getting from bad to worse day-by-day as the tall promises of development, investment and job creation of the government have fallen flat. Instead of creating new employment opportunities, daily-wagers, casual labourers, scheme workers and other contractual employees are either not getting wages regularly or are being altogether denied their wages. Agriculture and Horticulture, Tourism, handicrafts, transport and other sectors are in deep crisis” Tarigami said.
He impressed that successive executive orders post August 2019 like domicile laws, curbs on media, intimidation of government employees, discriminatory rules on employment are some of the authoritarian diktats that have been imposed on the people of Jammu and Kashmir. Termination of some employees without giving them a chance to be heard, has created a fear psychosis among the employees in general. Local officers are being side-lined and the abolition of State Cadre is one more step towards disempowerment of the people.
“It is absolutely imperative that people in every region and community in J&K remain united and not fall prey to false campaigns and attempts aimed at dividing and disempowering them further. Not only in Kashmir, but there is huge dissatisfaction over the impact of the undemocratic course adopted by the Center and the local administration in Jammu and Ladakh regions as well. People in all regions of the erstwhile state have started questioning the BJP’s claim of ‘Naya Kashmir’. People want to know what they have achieved by destroying perspective of Naya Kashmir which was framed through hard and protracted struggle by the people against the autocratic regime and feudal lords” the official statement read.
