Priyanka Gandhi Vadra blames BJP govt for drug menace, unemployment

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra today raised the drug menace in the Jammu region, claiming it was affecting unemployed youth greatly.

Addressing her first Congress rally in the Bishnah constituency of the Jammu division, Priyanka said she came across the issue in the region, but other parties were silent on it.

Priyanka was also scheduled to go to Billawar in Kathua, but her chopper could not land there.

“The government has failed to provide jobs to the youth of the region due to which they are being lured towards ‘chitta’,” she said.

She said people of J&K had lost their statehood, but PM Narendra Modi was telling them that they had a a bridge on the Chenab that was taller than the Eiffel Tower.

“PM Modi makes tall claims about development in J&K, but the fact remains your land rights and your resources have been taken away,” she said.

She said people were feeling suffocated in J&K. “You had a 150-year-old practice of Darbar Move that was stopped. Here, the Lieutenant Governor is ruling completely according to his own will and without any accountability,” she said.

Launching a scathing attack on the BJP and the J&K administration, Priyanka said after the installation of smart meters in many areas, people were getting inflated bills. “Toll plazas have been come up in many areas. New taxes are being imposed. They will take your land, collect taxes and you will also have to pay bribe to get work done. It seems that the common man is not being heard by the authorities in J&K,” she said. “While there are scams and paper leaks in J&K, useless schemes like the Agnipath are being imposed on the youth,” she said.

Targeting the government over claims of a fall in terror incidents in J&K, she said it was far from true as 683 incidents had taken place, killing 260 security personnel and 170 civilians.

Claiming that policies in J&K were being framed and designed to benefit outsiders, the Congress general secretary said mineral blocks and other contracts had been handed over to companies from other states.