Jammu, Sep. 09: JKPCC Chief Vikar Rasool Wani, JKPCC Working President Raman Bhalla Friday addressed meeting of Ex Youth Congress organized by Ex PYC President Paranav Sagotra. JKPCC General Secretary Manmohan Singh, Pawan Raina, Sanjeev Panda, Rajveer Singh, Karan Bhagat ,Dwarka Choudhary also addressed the meeting. Prominent among those present on the occasion include Balbir Singh, Hoshiar Singh, Pankaj Sharma, Sumeet Mangotra, Rajan Sharma, Firdous Mingnoo, Jared Lone, Anoop Gupta, Gurpreet Singh, Parvesh Sharma, Rashid Malik, Rahul Tandon Prikshit Shagotra, Sahil Shavotra, Gurvinder Singh beside others.
Speaking on the occasion, JKPCC Chief said that youth of J&K were being suffocated by “repressive policies of the present Government.”He exhorted youth activists of the party’s youth wing to lead efforts to bring about change and empower the youth to shape a future of dignity and peace. He said, “The looming uncertainty coupled with the confrontational approach of BJP government has created a sense of despair and hopelessness among the youth. The Central Government’s unfortunate failure to reach out and build bridges of reconciliation and peace with our youth has created a political vacuum. In this grim atmosphere, our youth is being robbed of their right to dream of a dignified and prosperous future – which is a travesty.”He said the youth feels cheated and betrayed after promises made to them in 2014 were either broken or unapologetically abandoned.
“Promises were made during elections and votes were sought for specific purposes. The same promises were then bartered, without any inhibitions, for personal and familial political empowerment of a few people, while our hardworking, honest and sincere young men and women were let down and left to the mercy of uncertainty and turmoil. Due to this treachery, the trust deficit has been further widened to an extent where skepticism on the ground, far overshadows the utility of any rhetoric the Government has to offer”, Wani added. Asking the youth activists to organize themselves at the local ground level in a decentralized manner, Wani asked them to lead a collective effort to bring about a change.“You are the harbingers of change and you have to work together and with utmost dedication and conviction to be a source of reprieve for the people. Together, the youth can lead a historic effort to rid J&K of political opportunism and deceit.” He said that J&K youth find themselves surrounded by darkness as the limited employment opportunities are shrinking further for them.
JKPCC Working President Raman Bhalla in his address said that the youth of Jammu and Kashmir have been worst hit by various decisions of BJP Govt.“The government jobs which should have been given to our youth are going to outsiders. It is the youth of Jammu, Kashmir, Chenab and Pir Panjal regions who should have the first rights over the employment generated in their regions. But that is not the case,” he said.He said ideally much of the employment generated in local power and road infrastructure projects initiated by Congress governments in this region should have gone into the hands of local educated, skilled youth of the region. But it is not happening; on the contrary, the outsourcing of jobs and contracts has rendered our youth in this region, and elsewhere hopeless. It is this injustice that we are fighting against,” he said.
On BJP’s claims of fostering development and progress in Jammu and Kashmir after its blunders in J&K, Bhalla said, “Promised dawn of development, jobs for youth and much touted investment remains a distant dream. Far from putting the region on a path of development, the ruling dispensation has liquidated the hard-earned dividends of previous Congress led governments in bridging the gulf between the people and the government. We are fighting to bridge that gulf by fighting for the restoration of their abridged constitutional rights,” he said. Alleging that the incumbent ruling dispensation in New Delhi is looking at the people of Jammu and Kashmir “with profound mistrust”, he said “people of J&K and Congress cadre, have been consistent in their faith in the Indian Constitution. We have cherished our bond with the country and given supreme sacrifices to defend it. .“Contrarily it is New Delhi which has backtracked on its solemn and sovereign promises which it made to the people of Jammu and Kashmir. The moment we raise our voice against wrong decisions, we are mocked and ridiculed as traitors,” he said. Bhalla further said the youth of Jammu and Kashmir had been left in the lurch by a brazenly nepotistic and anti-youth government. He said hard-working, meritorious and qualified youth of the State were being pushed against the wall because of open political patronage to nepotism and an unprecedented chaos in recruitment, competitive examinations and at service commissions.
JKPCC General Secretary Manmohan Singh speaking on the occasion said that kith and kin of leaders of the ruling alliance were being directly accommodated into gazetted jobs through the back door. “We have highly qualified, talented youth who have given their sweat and blood to be equipped with great academic credentials and this Government seems hell-bent to alienate them after robbing them of their merit and rights,” Singh said. He said the deteriorating law and order situation and the instability in J&K in the past three years had a direct bearing on the future of the youth. “It is the youth that suffers the most due to the Government’s inability to preserve and nurture peace and stability. It affects their studies, robs them of employment opportunities and creates a sense of hopelessness that is dangerous considering the circumstances in J&K.
Former PYC President Paranav Sagotra in his address said that biggest injustices with the youth are being perpetuated while the Government has precious little to offer apart from rhetoric and photo opportunities. He said rising unemployment in J&K was a matter of grave concern and was a telling indictment of the failed policies of the present Government. “Our unemployment numbers are rising and could well have crossed a million unemployed skilled and unskilled young men if an objective analysis is undertaken. With the complete collapse of the Tourism Sector and zero headway in encouraging a private sector growth, diminishing jobs in the Public Sector have created an alarming situation. Especially how even those limited jobs in the public sector seem to be reserved for the kith and kin of the ruling alliance leaders,” Pranav said in his address. He asked the Party’s Youth Wing to reach out to the youth and empower them politically to become opinion-makers and stakeholders in finding solutions to these problems.