Legislators slam ‘unapproachable’ ministers
The much-awaited meeting to iron out differences between BJP ministers and MLAs proved to be futile as a majority of the legislators were not satisfied with the outcome of the exercise because their grievances were not taken seriously by the leadership.
Instead of giving strict directions to the ministers to immediately address grievances of the legislators, the party leadership led by state chief Sat Sharma asked legislators to give suggestions how to solve problems of the people like the scarcity of potable water and unscheduled power cuts during summer.
“The exercise proved to be futile because there was no agenda of the meeting. Besides, the ministers were not ready to give a serious consideration to the suggestions given by the legislators,” a BJP MLA told Kashmir POST on condition of anonymity. He said a majority of the legislators were not satisfied with the outcome of the meeting held here.
The MLAs rue that the ministers are not approachable and pay no heed to the problems plaguing their constituencies. “If leadership had to conduct this meeting just as a cosmetic exercise, MLAs should not have been called from their respective constituencies. It was just a waste of time because no serious discussion was held and the meeting was conducted without any agenda,” the MLA said. The woes of the common man in the Jammu region were mounting, especially during summer, but the ministers did not appear to be ready to listen to the grievances of the people’s representatives, he added.
Highly placed sources said a majority of the legislators present in the meeting gave vent to their anger as they alleged that their grievances were not being seriously addressed by the ministers.
“General secretary (organisation) Ashok Koul advised party ministers to lend seriousness to the issues being raised by party legislators,” a source, adding that Koul asked ministers that they should give priority to the grievances of the legislators because they were the only connection between the government and the people.
Meanwhile, sources said the issues of unscheduled power curtailment and scarcity of water dominated another meeting of legislators of Jammu district which was held at the residence of Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh.
