Srinagar City taken for granted by NC : Mehbooba

Scoop News January 28, 2012

Srinagar, January 28 (Scoop News) –Addressing the meetings of Zonal Committees of Hazrathbal, Sonwar and Zadibal PDP president Ms Mehbooba Mufti has said that present government has turned the Srinagar city into the world’s fastest developing slum.

Mehbooba Mufti blamed NC of worsening economic, political and infrastructure condition of the capital city. “Srinagar is turning into world’s fastest growing slum because of government neglect while the ruling national conference doles out the haphazardly conceived works to its cadre in the name of development, only to provide them monetary benefits.”

Mehbooba said that lack of vision in the ruling party was the misfortune of Srinagar as the city now looks, centuries behind its counterparts in other states. “National Conference has unfortunately taken Srinagar for granted and does not feel accountable to its residents as its leaders from the city know they are only beneficiaries of boycott politics and are not even concerned with the huge issues of development that city faces.

She said had that not been so, the eight MLAs and a Member of Parliament from Srinagar would not have allowed crores of rupees meant for development of the city besides Rs 48 crores under the Central Road Fund (CRF) to be diverted to other areas. “This atrocity was committed on the city with the approval of the chief minister Omar Abdullah who also holds the planning and R&B portfolios” she added.

Ms Mehbooba said that the city which is becoming home to numerous new entrants from rural areas and is also playing host to over a million tourists has stopped growing as modern centre. The infrastructure remaining stagnant, life is becoming impossible for commuters as traffic snarls take hours to cover only a few kilometers. She said the shelving of the IDB funded flyovers has frozen road expansion in the city with more and more bottlenecks being added to the system. “Unfortunately the chicken brained NC leaders mistake blacktopping of a few kilometers of road as modernization and development not realizing how cities in today’s world are being developed” She said. This is in spite of the fact that the chief minister and his senior ministers are frequent travelers outside the state and country and they never bring back any modern ideas to relieve their people of increasing commutation troubles, she regretted.

Referring to the two major bottlenecks at the entry points of Panthachhok and Shalteng, she said these have made journey to and from the city a nightmare for everyone. She said even after seven years the four laning of Srinagar Narbal road is nowhere near completion even though now even that might fall short of requirements. Similarly, Widening of city roads & the Panthachhok entry point is nobody’s business in the government even though the locals and tourists have to spend hours in negotiating it.

She said unless the government puts its act together in Srinagar and deals the city and its development with the seriousness and respect they deserve, quality of life for its people would continue to degrade. She said even if the government only picked up the threads from where the previous government had left it and continued to work on projects started by it; the people could feel a difference.

Instead of taking new initiatives towards the betterment of civic amenities in Srinagar, the present government has in fact failed to build on the initiatives taken by the previous PDP-led coalition government for the betterment of the city. The recent revelation of PAC of the Assembly in which crores of rupees has been diverted from major cities and towns to other areas have further exposed the rot within the government, she added."People are getting punished for having a government that has earned highest disapproval rates in the history of the state for its inefficient performance," she said.

Mehbooba said the Dal development project which was got sanctioned at a cost of about Rs 300 crores is showing no impact because of faulty implementation. Except for spending money there is no visible improvement in the condition of Dal Lake which is the primary tourist asset of the city. Similarly the beautification progarmme of the Jehlum river and revitalization of the historic down town, construction of the Veer at Chatabal to enable navigation within the city, rehabilitation of Dal dwellers have completely been stalled.

Ms Mufti sought the cooperation of the people of Srinagar for strengthening the PDP so that a new era of change and development could be brought into the state.

Coordination Secretary Ab Hameed Kosheen, Vice District president Nisar Ahmed Mandoo, Senior Leader Asiea Naqash, Zonal presidents Ab Hameed, Abul Hassan and Mohd Shafi Mir was also present and spoke on this occasion.

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