Jammu, May 03: The new chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mufti Mohammed Sayeed is facing flak for his whirlwind tour of the country wooing Bollywood and other tourism related industry people promising sky to change the image of the trouble torn state.
At home he seems to have briefed his ministers to propagate equitable treatment to all the three regions of the state and focus on wooing youth of the state.
As we had discussed in our last article on May 1 that all is well that ends well and so it applies to his present tour and the wooing spree of his ministers in the state as unless the government is serious and means business these torus or healing touches would not yield any result.
It is imperative that the Chief Minister and the ministers’ back home implement what they are promising and the assurances at home assume significance due to the fact that people of the state need a government that delivers what it promises and ends the decades’ old biased approach towards regions and neglect of the young generation.
If we go by the daily statements of the ministers of the coalition government it seems their focus is on applying balm to the wounds of the people who have been crying hoarse of regional discriminations as well as the wrong policies of the previous governments pushing the young generation to the edge, but the problem lies when ministers instead of talking as ministers talk like party leaders giving credit to their own party rather than the coalition as a whole.
It was as recent as today that the ministers of the government continued their campaign of equal treatment to all regions when the government spokesman said, “Reaffirming commitment of the government to empower all regions and sub-regions of the State, the Minister for Horticulture, Haj and Auqaf, has said that people of Jammu and Kashmir have high hopes with the coalition government headed by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and government will make all possible efforts for the welfare and socio-economic upliftment of people. He said government is committed to address the issues of people besides fulfill their aspirations.
…… Minister for Rural Development, Minister of State for PHE, were also present on the occasion….the minister … said the youth have become partners in the movement launched by PDP for establishing a new system of justice and transparency in the state. He said the PDP has become the first choice of the state’s young population given its staunch pro-youth agenda.
Stressing on the youth to strive for change within the system, Minister said the present government is expected to involve youth as the harbinger of change that can usher in a new era of peace, prosperity and development in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Minister said that present coalition government is the only dispensation in the state that has formulated a separate Youth Development Policy for the welfare of the youth and start working on its implementation.
The Minister said “PDP believes that the youth of J&K have the right to seek meaningful employment, participation in decision-making that affects their lives and protection from socio-economic and political exploitation””.
However the government has not begun on a good note as far as wooing young generation is concerned with its flawed recruitment policy.
Young people who had already been bruised by the flip flop of the previous government over the job policy felt badly hurt when the new government came up with a recruitment policy that was worse than the policy proposed by the earlier dispensation.
Similarly the rhetoric that ministers have initiated about giving equal treatment to all the regions also needs to be followed up in letter and spirit as regions like Jammu, Ladakh and sub regions like Gurez, Poonch, and Chenab valley have also been crying hoarse of worst ever discrimination being perpetuated on them by the successive governments, besides instead of using the party names the ministers must focus on government.
Hence if the new dispensation headed by Mufti wants to bring a real change in the way government is run in the state it needs to focus on delivering what it has promised and what it is promising to both local as well as outsiders like tourists and tourism industry.
At the same time it also needs to be understood that Bureaucracy which plays the major role in implementation of the government policies has to work in tandem with the government if it wants the new government to succeed in its mission as envisaged by the coalition alliance.
At The Earth News we believe in positive approach and positive journalism and we believe the government is sincere and wants to end with the age old red-tapism in the state but the fact remains that it will be the results that will show whether the government was able to deliver what it promised or it was just another political alliance for the sake of power.