Union ministers' visits to J-K mere 'eyewash': Pathers Party

The Jammu and Kashmir Panthers Party here on Wednesday termed Union ministers' visits to the newly carved Union Territory an "eyewash", accusing them of avoiding disgruntled people and troublesome areas in the aftermath of the scrapping of the J-K's special status over five months ago.

Addressing a rally in Ramnagar of Udhampur district, JKNPP chairman and former minister Harsh Dev Singh said the ministers "randomly select places of their tour in consultation with their local party colleagues, ensuring that troublesome areas were omitted from their itinerary and disgruntled people are avoided".

"The ministers' visits to Jammu and Kashmir are only an eyewash and have nothing to do with aspirations of people," he said, adding that these trips proved to be "pleasure trips".

"The ministers were supposed to make people aware about benefits of the abrogation of Article 370 provisions but such awareness was more required in Kashmir region than Jammu. Interestingly, central ministers has shown their disinclination towards Kashmir as only five of 36 ministers were reported to have planned visits to the Valley," Singh added.

Even in the Jammu region, he said Union ministers were indulging in the inaugurations of petty development works with their speeches full of "tired shibboleths".

"It was not understandable as to how the same could help them achieve their objective of educating people. It was further not clarified as to what prompted them to visit J-K with the aforesaid motive five and a half months after the scrapping of the special status and downgrading of the state into UTs," he said.