Addressed Block Committee meetings in Anantnag, Bijbehara, Anantnag West 

Srinagar Dec 15 (KNS) : The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference Vice President Omar Abdullah on Thursday said that the party's peaceful, and just struggle for restoration of articles 370, 35-A will continue. 

This he said today on the final day of his tour of district Anantnag while addressing a series of Block Committee meetings in Anantnag (Thajiwara), Anantnag West and Bijbehara. The interactions were organised by constituency incharges Peer Muhammad Hussain, Abdul Majeed Bhat Larmi and Dr. Bashir Ahmed Veeri. Among others Provincial President Nasir Aslam Wani, district President Altaf Wani, Riyaz Khan, Mushtaq Ahmad, Umesh Talashi, Imran Bashir, Feroz wani, Irfan Gulzar, Peerzada Musharaf, Ovais Nazir were also present.

Addressing the function, Omar said articles 370,35-A was a perpetual constitutional guarantee and that the party will continue to fight for their restoration. “The constitutional guarantees sprang from the accession itself . Both were perpetual. If accession is forever, so were the constitutional safeguards for our state,” he said.

Referring to the repeal of PSA, Omar said that he was at his wits end to understand why the criticism on this issue was emanating from certain regional parties. “Ideally they should have supported us on this issue. It would have been understandable had the criticism come from national parties. Irony is that the criticism is coming from local parties. As far as we are concerned, we are committed to repeal PSA. People who are making noise, have made it clear that they want the law to remain applicable in J&K,” he said.

Questioning the bravado of the government on development and employment, Omar said that what was being claimed is contradicted by ground realities. “It has been three years since 2019, I'm yet to find a single young educated boy who was given a job order. On the contrary every single selection list since 2019 has landed up in scams. On the front of infrastructure, the situation is no different, it's all confined to shoddy propaganda and PR,” he said.

Saying that NC is committed to the welfare of poor, downtrodden and unprivileged sections of society in J&K, Omar said, “People want an early end to this lingering officialdom. BJP on its part is reluctant to go for it, as it cannot answer people. People are asking questions as to where those promised jobs, hospitals, and roads are. Not able to answer, it's not going for elections. Sooner or later they will have to do it. They cannot hide from people for a long time. Whenever they do it, they will have to face the people's wrath.” (KNS)