Statehood, One Lakh Jobs: M Kharge Announces 5 Guarantees For J&K

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday announced five guarantees for the people of Jammu and Kashmir, including five lakh interest-free loan for women entrepreneurs and Rs 25 lakh health insurance per family, if the Congress-NC alliance is voted to power in the Union territory.

Campaigning for the alliance candidates in this south Kashmir town, Mr Kharge also said the Congress-NC government will give Rs 3,000 monthly to the women heads of families besides promising to restore the provision to give 11 kg grains per person through the public distribution system.

He said the promise for rehabilitation of Kashmir Pandit migrants, which was made during the term of Manmohan Singh, will be fulfilled.

The OBCs will also get their rights as enshrined in the Constitution, he added.

The five guarantees were read out by the Congress president in presence of National Conference president Farooq Abdullah and other senior Congress leaders, including K C Venugopal and Subodh Kant.

Mr Kharge said there were one lakh jobs vacancies in Jammu and Kashmir but the current dispensation appointed by the BJP-led Centre is not filling them as “they want to keep people of Jammu and Kashmir poor”.

“We will fill these vacancies. They did not bring any industry, hence no job creation. We will focus on tourism and manufacturing. More than 4,400 government schools have been closed in the past several years. We will reopen them as we will focus on education,” the Congress president said.

Mr Kharge reiterated that the party will strive for restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir while promising to restore a bi-cameral legislature in the Union territory.

“We will strive to get statehood for J-K. The bi-cameral House will be restored. They (BJP) keep asking how we will do it? When people are with us, we will do it as it is people’s power,” he added.