JKNPP protests against ex-gratia to stone-pelters in Kashmir

Accusing the Jammu and Kashmir government of "perpetuating discrimination" against the educated youths of Jammu, J&K National Panthers Party (JKNPP) today staged a protest against providing the "lion's share" in employment to Kashmir, besides ex-gratia and jobs to the stone-pelters in the Valley.
Led by the outfit's chairman and former state minister Harsh Dev Singh, scores of JKNPP activists and educated, unemployed youths held a demonstration at the Exhibition Ground here.
They raised anti-government slogans and burnt effigies as well as photocopies of their degree certificates as a mark of protest against the government's decision to give ex-gratia and jobs to stone-pelters in the Valley.

Referring to the certificates as "redundant pieces of paper", PhD and MPhil degree holders, double post-graduates and contractual lecturers set the photocopies ablaze to express their embitterment against the "dark rule" of the ruling PDP-BJP alliance in the state.
Dubbing the state government's announcement to give jobs as well as ex-gratia to the next of kin of slain militants and thousands of stone-pelters as "highly offensive", Singh alleged that in the backdrop of BJP's 'achhe din' slogan, "ruffians, vandals, hooligans and illiterates" were being glorified.
"Whereas, the educated youth are being discriminated against, exploited, suppressed and treated like disposables," he told reporters.

"Those who had set Kashmir on fire, danced to the tunes of the secessionists, supported slain terrorist Burhan Wani's ideology, attacked army camps, pelted stones at the security forces, snatched weapons from the defence personnel, torched schools and public property, unfurled Pakistan's, ISIS' flags, shouted anti-India slogans and waged war against the State are being given incentives under the government's insane policy.
"On the contrary, the state government continues to pursue the policy of use-and-throw towards the educated youth of Jammu," Singh alleged.