Govt hell-bent on economic disempowerment of J&K, says Mehbooba Mufti

PDP president Mehbooba Mufti alleged on Saturday that the government is "hell-bent" on ensuring the economic disempowerment of Jammu and Kashmir and that the valley is being "drained" of its wealth.

A delegation of Kashmir Distributors Association (KDA) office-bearers called on Mufti and apprised her of reports that the government is facilitating the opening of Reliance JioMarts across the Kashmir valley, a spokesperson of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) said.

Acknowledging the concern of the delegation, Mufti said the government is "hell-bent on the economic disempowerment of Jammu and Kashmir".

"Kashmir is being drained of its wealth," she added.

The former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said while on one hand, the administration is "hounding" the business community in the Union Territory through the ED, the CBI and the NIA, on the other, it continues to facilitate "crony capitalists" to grab everything at cheap prices in the distressed economy.

"Entire Jammu and Kashmir has been put on sale for people from outside. They want to target our self-sufficiency," she said.

The delegation highlighted the ramifications of the said move, which can "systematically decimate" their sales, destroy their market share and pulverise the local economy.

"Competing with behemoths like Reliance having deep pockets, logistical advantages and facilitation by the system is simply not possible for us and it will eventually destroy us. Most of us get working capital from banks and run on cash credit accounts. If our market share is destroyed, we will default and these corporations will act as 'vulture capitalists' and devour us," the members of the delegation told Mufti.

The PDP chief assured them of all possible help and urged the lieutenant governor to intervene in the matter.