KL Report
SRINAGAR
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president, Mehbooba Mufti Saturday said though Gulmarg-Tangmarg constituency has the potential of becoming one of the economic power houses of the state on the strength of its tourism potential alone, but lack of development in the area has resulted in immense problems of infrastructure and amenities for its residents.
Mehbooba said the present coalition government having sensed its defeat in the coming assembly elections after its rout in the Lok Sabha elections was misleading different sections of the society especially the youth by issuing fake and fraudulent engagement orders.
She said the results of the Lok Sabha elections had established the primacy of the PDP on the political scenario of the state.
“By securing a lead in as many as 41 assembly segments the PDP had emerged on top but the complete collapse of NC and Congress had resulted in the resurgence of the BJP in the state,” she said.
During an extensive tour of the constituency in which she visited more than 30 villages, Mehbooba said there was hardly any visible sign of development in the area with the people complaining of lack of drinking water, irrigation facilities, power deficit, scarcity of ration and very poor condition of most of the internal roads. She was told that none of the hundred odd villages in Tangmarg assembly constituency has filtered water supply available to it.
While thanking the people, who had come out in large numbers to greet and listen to her, for having voted for the PDP candidate, Muzaffar Husain Baig in the recent Lok Sabha elections, Mehbooba said her party treats itself as accountable to the people for its performance. She said the party is coming up with a manifesto that apart from addressing the political issues facing the state will try to focus on development issues and the severe unemployment problems.
Mehbooba said horticulture, agriculture, energy development and tourism is the thrust area of PDP’s development agenda. She said the National Conference and Congress had ignored development and employment generation and linked their political survival to either hollow slogans or election time gimmicks which it is practicing at present. “PDP will strive for generation of remunerative and respectable employment opportunities so that our youth don’t have to fall victim to the false promises and fake appointment orders,” she added.
She said the emergence of the PDP government looked imminent, given the statistics of the Lok Sabha results. “The emergence of the PDP government in the state looked imminent but it was for the people now as to how strong that government would be in order to be able to face the new challenges, “Mehbooba added.
Introducing the local candidate for assembly elections, Mehbooba said Mohammad Abbas Wani was a young and energetic worker of the party who had remained loyal to it and was connected with the people of the constituency at the grass root levels. She said Abbas would prove worthy representative of the people who would continue to remain connected to the ground and feel answerable to his voters and the people in general in the constituency.
The PDP Chief said her party will try to focus on horticulture and tourism in Tangmarg constituency and it would ensure that adequate infrastructure is built in the area so that tourism activity would not remain confined to Gulmarg alone. She said while Gulmarg is prime tourism assets of the state which needs to be provided with most modern amenities for the high spending tourists but every other place in the constituency could be developed as part of a larger tourist circuit. This, she said, would ensure disbursal of the revenue generated by tourism and ensure respectable jobs for the youth in their own locality.
