Thaindian News

Jammu, Dec 13 (IANS) Jammu and Kashmir’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti Tuesday asserted that her party government, in coalition with Congress, had delivered much better in all the fields, though it only had 16 legislators in the 87-member assembly.

On a tour of the mountainous border districts of Poonch and Rajouri in Jammu region, Mufti sought the support of the people to change the fundamentals of the state’s political and administrative system.

Addressing a public rally at Kotranka in Rajouri, about 220 km from Jammu, Mehbooba Mufti noted that her party had proved how a “change could be brought about in the life of people even with a fractured mandate and a short span of time”.

Her father, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, headed PDP-Congress coalition from 2002 to 2005 after which the Congress’ Ghulam Nabi Azad took over as per the agreement on rotational chief ministers.

“Governance consciousness was generated in the people of Jammu and Kashmir only after experiencing the positive impact of the previous PDP-Congress government on their daily lives and they would hence forth not compromise on the quality of governance,” she said.

Mehbooba Mufti said that the state was earlier exploited on emotional slogans alone without keeping pace with the requirements of development and growth that had hit the remote and the backward areas the hardest.

Contending the government under Sayeed unlocked the process of development, she said: “This we could achieve with just 16 members in the assembly and a loose coalition of many parties and Independent members.”

In present coalition led by National Conference (NC), there are 28 NC legislators and 17 of the Congress. The PDP has 21 members.

Mehbooba Mufti claimed that the “feel good” environment that the previous government left behind was unfortunately wasted by the present government. “It not only brought to a halt the process of development and political reconciliation but reversed the process in every sense of the word,” she alleged.

She said that present coalition government led by Omar Abdullah had just “promoted misgovernance and institutionalized corruption”.

Referring to Abdullah’s October announcement of removing Armed Forces Special Powers Act from some parts of state within a “few days”, she said: “Though Omar Abdullah made noises about AFSPA recently but he could not make any headway and in the process lowered the prestige of chief minister’s position and compromised the dignity and respect of the state.”