JAMMU, Mar 11: Enraged by the State government’s outright refusal to construct Amarnath Ji Highway in Kashmir hurting the faith and sentiments of the people of Jammu region and Hindus in particular, a battalion of Panther activists spearheaded by Mr. Harsh Dev Singh Chairman JKNPP and Mr. Yash Paul Kundal State president Young Panthers along with several leaders staged an aggressive protest demonstration at Exhibition Ground Jammu. The infuriated protestors raising anti-govt. slogans took out a procession which was restrained by the police at Tawi Bridge. The activists amid scuffle with the police set ablaze the effigy of the BJP for its treacherous involvement in the clandestine rejection of the revered road project in the valley.
Exposing the BJP-PDP combine for its malicious intentions through the J&K PWD reply in response to his RTI application, Mr. Harsh Dev Singh revealed that the Govt. of India had sanctioned 8 new Highways last year to the State of J&K with the assurance of 100% funding for all the projects. He said that out of these projects Highway No. 501 was announced by the GoI along the holy cave of Amarnath Ji shrine measuring 105 Kms in length linking Baltal-Panchtarni-Chandanwari-Pahalgam-Batakut-Martand-Khanabal in Kashmir. Astounded by the ludicrous reply of the department to point No. 10 of his RTI application, he disclosed that the State PWD expressed environmental reasons for refusing the construction of the said road and declined to convey NOC to MoRTH for declaring it as National Highway. He further divulged that the highly abominable reply read that “if the said track was developed as National Highway, it would only devastate the scenic beauty of Pahalgam in Kashmir”. Dubbing the reply as preposterous and sacrilegious, he asked the State govt. to justify that if the said road was not eco-friendly then how could it fail to convey the objections for the construction of other road projects in Kashmir with similar topography, terrain and climate conditions. He said that the Govt.’s reply once again indicated the appeasement policy towards the secessionists and subversives who were hell bent to scuttle the development of the pious shrine for their communal interests which attracted lacs of pilgrims from all across the country.
Launching a scathing attack on the coalition govt. and BJP in particular for maintaining criminal silence over the issue, Mr. Harsh Dev Singh recalled that the Saffron party which once claimed itself as saviour of Hindus during Amarnath Ji land row in 2008 had now sold the faith of the Dogras and the entire Hindu fraternity by refusal of the holy Highway. He said that during the agitation in the back drop of the State govt. repealing the transfer of 100 Acres land to Shri Amarnath Ji Shrine Board (SASB) to set up temporary accommodation for Hindu pilgrims in Kashmir, the BJP vehemently rabble-roused to take the political mileage from the mass movement led by Amarnath Yatra Sangarsh Samiti and won 11 Assembly seats from Jammu Pradesh at the cost of several lives and thousands who were injured. He said that entire Jammu region witnessed complete shut down for over two months and lakhs of people including children, women and old courted arrest to showcase their exemplary ‘Shaivik’ faith and belief. “The silence of the abhorrent BJP reflected its pusillanimous surrenders before the commands of the PDP and the ominous combine was towing the ideology of Kashmiri separatist leaders to enjoy the power devoid of all political encumbrances. The Saffron party had committed a sin by selling the aspirations and faith of the people and even its decimation would not heal the wounds of the masses who voted them to power with 25 representatives”, Harsh maintained.
Mr. Yash Paul Kundal vowed that Panthers Party shall not relent unless the State govt. gave a nod to the construction of the aforesaid Highway and warned the alliance of a mammoth agitation more truculent and aggressive than the Amarnath Ji land row in case it scuttled the sanctioned road project to placate the secessionists and Pak/ISIS sponsored militants in the valley.
Prominent among those who spoke on the occasion included Rajesh Padgotra, Mrs. Manju Singh, Sham Gorkha, Gagan Pratap Singh, Mrs. Kesar Parveen, Parshotam Parihar, Vilakshan Singh, Pushpinder Singh, Partap Singh, Robin Sharma, Arun Dev, Vinod Sharma, Mohit Sharma, Rakesh Singh Vicky, Ashok Malkkan, Khajoor Singh, Nirmal Kishore, Satvir, Dharam Singh Bittu, Karnail Singh, Rajesh Sharma, Baldev Singh Mankotia, Anil Rakwal, Sukhjit, Kewal Krishan Sharma, Ashok Chopra, Udhayveer, Anshuman Sharma, Praduman Singh, Narotam Singh, Arun Khajuria, Mohinder Singh besides others.
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