Mehbooba urges people to take benefit of welfare schemes

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, August 30

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president and Member of Parliament Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday urged people to take advantage of the key welfare schemes launched by the government.

She exhorted the public representatives to ensure that the deserving benefitted from the schemes in their respective constituencies.

“The respective public representatives and the party workers should not only ensure effective implementation of the government’s welfare schemes such as ‘Aasra’ and ‘Laadli’ on the ground, but also monitor them so that the benefits of the pioneering schemes reach as many deserving people,” Mehbooba said while addressing a day-long convention of the PDP cadres in south Kashmir’s Shopian district today.

A party spokesman said in a statement that Mehbooba also explained the broader contours of the welfare schemes during the party convention.

Mehbooba said the waiver of surcharge on power and the amnesty scheme would go a long way in ameliorating the financial condition of the poor who are unable to pay the hefty power bills as the electricity tariff was hiked by more than 500 times by the previous National Conference-Congress regime.

She credited the PDP-led government with having pioneered ground-breaking initiatives on political, economic, development and social fronts in 2002 and 2015.

The PDP president alleged that despite having ruled the state for more than four decades, the National Conference had only exploited the people with rhetorical slogans and had done nothing substantial for the social, economic and political welfare of the state and its people.

She said the development initiatives taken by the government would boost the economy of Shopian and its adjoining areas.

“While the Roads and Buildings Department has already ordered pre-feasibility study for construction of a tunnel on the Mughal Road to provide all-weather connectivity between Kashmir and Jammu via Shopian, Rajouri and Poonch, a new national highway is being developed from Srinagar to Qazigund via Shopian that will further improve the physical connectivity of this apple rich town with the rest of the country, making it a hub of economic activity,” she said.

She said a new state-of-the-art fruit mandi, spread over around 300 kanals, was being developed at Aglar to boost the post-harvest management and marketing of apple and other fruits grown in the area.

Rajya Sabha member Nazir Ahmad Laway, PDP legislators Mohammad Yousuf, Aijaz Ahmad Mir and Zaffar Iqbal Manhas, PDP general secretary Rafi Ahmad Mir, political adviser to the PDP president Peerzada Mansoor Hussain and party coordinator for south Kashmir Mufti Sajad also addressed the convention.