J&K Apni Party senior vice president Ghulam Hassan Mir, on Friday, said that the Apni Party’s “path-breaking” work has opened up a new era of hope among the people of Jammu and Kashmir, who were disappointed with the traditional political parties.

“Apni Party’s two and a half years role was path breaking because it took the lead to resolve issues of the people of J&K including employment, protection to land, and other issues,” said Ghulam Hassan Mir addressing party activists here.

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The meeting reviewed the present political scenario in J&K while discussing the Apni Party’s role to shape up the future of people who have developed a feeling of alienation with the Lt Governor’s administration, he said.

He said that the people want restoration of statehood and holding of assembly elections in J&K as early as possible so that a popular government replaces the L-G’s rule to end the suffering of the common masses.

Referring to other political parties, Mir said that “When these political parties were not ready to represent the people of J&K, we came out to highlight issues being confronted by the distressed people. We continued to work for the people and highlight their issues for early redressal when others were criticizing us.”

“We raised concerns of the people regarding protection of land, employment for the locals etc and got it protected. However, other political parties too followed us and raised the same issues,” he claimed.

“In fact, the other political parties tried to create disturbance in Jammu and Kashmir with a misinformation campaign with regard to the preparation of the electoral rolls. However, the Apni Party again came forward and raised the issue with the government of India following which a clarification was issued that denied the false claims made by the other political parties,” he said.

Mir said that the attempt to create problems in J&K was averted by the prompt response of the centre when the Apni Party raised the issue so that the people could not be put on the wrong path again.

He further said that “When these political parties got exposed before of their misinformation campaign which was rebutted by the Govt of India, they followed Apni Party and started holding public outreach programmes after our Party did the same in every nook and corner of J&K.”

“We were the driving force for other political parties to follow our footsteps and speak about public welfare instead of adopting the old tactics of divide and rule. The politics of division has no role in J&K and we will not allow it at any cost,” he added.

He said that the Apni Party wants to bring the people of two regions, Kashmir Valley and Jammu, close to each other and promote unity and communal harmony.

“Time has proved that we were on the right track. Apni Party believes in politics of telling the truth to the people without exploiting them emotionally and indulging in hate politics. This is the reason that the people have come close to us, supporting our policies and pinned hope with the Party,” he added explaining how the Party has planned to work for the welfare of the people.

He said that “We are committed to provide free of cost 500 units of electricity during winters in Kashmir and during summers in Jammu.” The party will enhance the widow pension up to Rs 5000, and four cooking gas cylinders per year under Ujjwala scheme.