Thaindian News

Jammu, Oct 29 (IANS) Jammu and Kashmir’s Peoples Democratic Party Saturday accused the Omar Abdullah government of lying about collection of water tax revenue from the National Hydroelectric Projects Corporation (NHPC) Ltd. and the judicial inquiry into the death of a National Conference worker last month.

“It is now more than clear that the NC (National Conference) government has sacrificed the interests of the state and made a total sellout, be it ministerial berths, water resources or power projects for their own personal luxuries,” PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said in a statement here.

She said the “position of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has become completely untenable in the wake of the shocking disclosure on water tax as much as his attempts to cover the political corruption in his party and government.”

Mehbooba said that “the government’s lie about setting up of a judicial probe for investigation into the political corruption and the mysterious death of the close associate of Abdullah family, Haji Yousuf, has been nailed by no less than the (state) Congress president, Saifudin Soz, who has questioned the imaginary judicial probe ordered by the state government”.

“No amount of cover up could absolve the chief minister and his family of their culpability in an absence of free and fair investigation,” she said in the statement.

“On the other hand, the lies about revenue collected from the imaginary water tax from NHPC has been nailed by no less than the chairman of NHPC who in his performance report for current year claimed that the state government had waived off water tax worth Rs.453 crore chargeable from NHPC, which means more loss to the already crumbling power sector of the state,” she added.