- ‘Amendment in Business Rules disempowered democratically elected Govt’
SAMBA: Apni Party Provincial President, Jammu, and Former Minister, S. Manjit Singh has criticized Govt for making Lt Governor of Jammu and Kashmir more powerful than an elected Govt. As per a statement, the Former Minister said that the people were expecting to participate in the proposed assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, which were pending for the last several years, following August 2019.
S. Manjit Singh, while speaking at a meeting in Dollian in ward number 11 in Bari Brahmana in Samba District, said that the people are deeply disappointed and anguished over the widening of ambit of the administrative role of the Lt Governor of J&K with an amendment of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs in the Transaction of Business Rules.
Following this amendment, he said that the LG has become more powerful than an elected Govt in Jammu and Kashmir. “With this amendment, the LG has gained more power in Police, All India Service and other matters as his consent is must,” he said, quoting the amendment that has demeaned the elected Govt and mocked the democratic institutions.
He said that even if the elections are held for the legislative assembly in Jammu and Kashmir, the Govt would have very less power, and it would require permission from the LG J&K before taking any kind of decisions even in financial matters and transfers.
“The people are not ready to believe that their state was dismembered first into two Union Territories i.e., Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir; and then the elections were delayed without justification, and when the elections were proposed, the powers of an elected Govt were snatched and handed over to the LG making him more powerful than an elected Govt,” he added, while strongly criticizing the Govt.
He demanded that such an ‘authoritarian’ decision should be withdrawn with immediate effect as it has sparked disappointment and mistrust towards the attention of the Govt. “The statehood without power to an elected Govt would be meaningless, and it would not help the people because the elected Govt would have limited powers to exercise, and possibly it is believed that the LG would become a stumbling block in the way of development and redressal of public issues,” he added.
He asked the people to protest against the curtailing of powers of an elected Govt, and demanded that the statehood should be restored with all powers. He said that the people are not going to compromise with the Govt on the disempowerment of their historical state. He warned against the consequences of taking such anti-people policies.
