Dogra Swabhimaan Sangathan Party (DSSP) president and former minister Choudhary Lal Singh on Sunday extended support to protesting Kashmiri migrant Pandit and Jammu-based reserved category employees who are seeking their relocation outside Kashmir following targeted killings. Singh also condemned the terrorists for targeting innocent Pandits and other minority community employees.
“They have not moved to Jammu for enjoyment but were forced by the circumstances as the government has miserably failed to provide them security,” the DSSP leader told reporters here. He said the people are not taking jobs to get killed. “The government should accept its failure and not compel them to resume their duties in the valley.”
Singh made the remarks days after Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha asserted that all necessary measures had been taken to ensure the safety of minority community employees, including Kashmiri Pandits, in the Valley and sent out a “loud and clear” message to those demanding a transfer -- no salary for sitting at home.
“The attacks on minority employees intensified under the present government. The government should give them in writing that nothing is going to happen with them and if any untoward incident takes place, the government is responsible,” he said. Condemning the targeted killings by terrorists in the valley, he said the Kashmiri Pandits are part and parcel of the Kashmiri society like a family and the majority community should come forward to safeguard them.
He said the reserved category employees were serving in the valley for the last 15 years and were moving with ease from village to village. “Political mishandling of the situation and increasing polarisation in the country has brought these employees under threat,” he said.
Singh claimed that Jammu is reeling under financial distress and every section of the society including youth, farmers, labourers, employees, students, unemployed and even businessmen are feeling a sense of insecurity under the present dispensation.
“All decisions taken by the present bureaucracy are to promote the interest of the outsiders whereas locals are being treated as second fiddle. All contracts are being manipulated in favour of outsiders and all positions of the officers are being strategically given to the outside officers,” he said. He also reiterated his party’s demand for separate statehood to Jammu province and extension of Article 371 of the Constitution to safeguard the rights of the locals.
