Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party (JKAP) president Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari on Tuesday emphasized the urgency for restoration of Statehood to J&K in order to overcome the simmering political disengagement prevalent among the people. Addressing a meeting of JKAP leaders and prominent workers at party office in Gandhi Nagar-Jammu while maintaining the COVID-19 social and health protocol, Bukhari remarked that re-establishing J&K as a State would be a practical step to bring good governance, economic development and peace and stability to the region. “The situation in Jammu and Kashmir has reached a stage where the people have virtually lost trust with the institution of governance and political process,” the JKAP president observed adding that lack of responsiveness in the government offices has added to the already existing levels of alienation and discontentment among the people. He said that any further delay in restoration of Statehood can increase the feeling of powerlessness, cynicism and lack of confidence in the political process, politicians and democratic institutions within J&K. “JKAP reiterates its demand and reminds the Country’s leadership of its promise on J&K’s Statehood. People are anxiously waiting for the announcement of this decision and sooner the better,” Bukhari opined. Meanwhile, the JKAP president urged the Lieutenant Governor led government to go for one-time electricity and water usage charges waiver for all small, medium and large commercial and other business establishments especially in the tourism sector which is already in distress since August 5 last year. “Almost all the shopkeepers, traders, and other small, medium and big business units including private schools have been badly hit since August last year and the COVID-19 pandemic has grossly added to their woes. Deferring the payment of electricity and water usage charges would be injustice with them. We demand that these charges should be waived off for the commercial sector in view of the prevailing circumstances,” Bukhari demanded. Expressing serious concern over the growing number of COVID-19 fatalities in J&K, the JKAP president called for all possible efforts by the government in order to minimize the spike in cases of Pandemic. He appealed to the people to follow the social and health guidelines of COVID-19 so as to reduce the number of deaths due to this deadly disease. “We should follow the words of advice of health experts in letter and spirit if we really want to contain this spread of this pandemic. The LG led government should also take all measures on war footing to minimize the number of deaths, being reported because of the COVID in J&K,” he demanded. The meeting was attended by Mohammad Dilawar Mir, Aijaz Ahmad Khan, Vijay Bakaya, Manjit Singh, Choudhary Qamar Hussain, Mumtaz Ahmad Khan, Kamal Arora, Vikram Malhotra, Syed Asghar Ali, Namreeta Sharma, Yawar Mir, Raqeeq Ahmad Khan, Madan Lal Chalotra, Bodh Raj, Anuj Manhas, Vijaynder Dutta, Aijaz Ali Kazimi, Neilanjan Arora, Raj Kumar Lagotra, Vaibhav Mattoo, Amandeep Singh Chopra, Yasir Choudhary, Janmeet Singh, Sandeep Gandotra and Satishwar Singh.
