Union ministers should work towards change in Kashmir: Mufti

The opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP) today said the Union ministers should make efforts to improve situation in Kashmir rather than blaming the intelligence agencies for running the show in the valley.
"It has become fashionable for people in power to talk like the opposition. Jairam Ramesh is a (Union) minister and should make efforts to change the situation," PDP president Mehbooba Mufti told reporters here.
She was referring to comments by the Union rural development minister as to how it was the spy agencies which were dictating India's Kashmir policy while the Centre had failed to heed the aspirations of the people of the state.

The PDP president said that while what Ramesh had observed was a "good thing", it required a strong leader at the Centre as well as in the state to implement positive changes.
"Mobile phone services were started in the state when Mufti Mohammad Sayeed took up the matter strongly with the Centre. POTA was also repealed during PDP's tenure," she said.
Commenting on the state of governance in Jammu and Kashmir, Mufti alleged that the present dispensation in power was known only for corruption.
"There were reports that some minister has bought property in Dubai. Then there was a report that some minister has grabbed forest land in Shopian; then we heard about the scandal in PHE, and now the spurious drugs case," she said.

Mehbooba claimed that ruling coalition partners National Conference and Congress were shielding each other's ministers whenever there were allegations of corruption against any of them.