Jammu, 1 October. Hitting out at the BJP government, CPI(M) leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami on Friday said that the claim of the government that abrogation of Article 370 has reduced incidents of terrorism and paved the way for industrialization in Jammu and Kashmir was “far from the reality”.

“The reality is that there is a systematic disempowerment of the people of Jammu and Kashmir that is continuing to happen, through bureaucratic rule”, Tarigami said in a statement.

The presence of Article 370 was not an impediment in the overall development of the State as claimed by the government, he said.

Tarigami was reacting to the recently released report by the Union Home ministry titled “The dream of one nation, one law, one symbol fulfilled: After effective removal of the provisions of Article 370, the picture has changed: a new start in Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.”

The projects mentioned in the booklet were mostly approved by the earlier governments but shown to have been the outcome of the abrogation of Art 370. The reality is that the Nashri Tunnel, Zojilla Tunnel, the establishment of 50-degree colleges and various medical colleges are projects approved much before abrogation of Art 370, the CPI(M) leader said.

Tarigami said that the BJP government is boasting of the implementation of various laws, like Land Reforms and RTI Act which is claimed to have been effective now. This is a “blatant lie” as the State of Jammu and Kashmir was a pioneer in implementing the revolutionary land reforms laws which no other state has done except Kerala to some extent. Similarly, the erstwhile state’s own RTI Act was stronger than the Union law.

On the employment front, we lag far behind and have assumed the highest unemployment proportion as compared to the pre-August 2019 period. The filling up of vacancies is a routine exercise which was being done earlier also and now attributing it to the post abrogation era is beyond “our comprehension”. The unemployment rate is highest in India in the last 45-years and in J&K it is worse than that, Tarigami claimed.

The credit for conception, approval, execution and completion of Srinagar’s long-awaited Ram Bagh flyover, IIT campus and AIIMS Jammu goes to the earlier governments. The BJP and the present dispensation cannot claim any credit for the construction of Atal Tunnel, Jammu Semi Ring Road and 8.45 km long new Banihal Tunnel, and the World’s tallest 467-meter rail bridge on river Chenab.