BJP will provide all rightsto Gujjars, claims Khatana

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state secretary Ghulam Ali Khatana has accused the NC-Congress coalition government of depriving Gujjar-Bakerwal, Gaddi and Sippis communities in Jammu and Kashmir of their basic rights.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state secretary Ghulam Ali Khatana has accused the NC-Congress coalition government of depriving Gujjar-Bakerwal, Gaddi and Sippis communities in Jammu and Kashmir of their basic rights.

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Addressing the mediapersons at the party headquarters here, Khatana said since Independence, Narendra Modi was the only prime ministerial candidate who had recognised the miseries of the neglected sections. During his address at Lalkar rally here, Modi assured the Gujjars of providing them all the rights, he added.

Khatana charged the Congress and Kashmir-based political parties with exploiting these downtrodden sections of the society for petty political gains and depriving them of reservations in Parliament, assembly, councils, local bodies and panchayats for over six decades.

He added that the BJP would extend all tribal protection laws to J&K after coming to power at the Centre and appealed to the Gujjar community to support the BJP's 'Mission 272+' for a stronger India.

He further said people in ST localities were living without shelter, potable water, schools, electricity, roads, rations, and there was no sign of the state and the Centre-sponsored development schemes.

He accused the state government of discriminating with the ST officers in appointing them on various prestigious posts in different departments.

He alleged that the government had been appointing non-STs on ST posts even as the ST population was just 2-3% in various districts of the Valley.

Meanwhile, he demanded inclusion of Gorjary language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution and opening of a Gorjary research centre in Jammu as well as at Kashmir University.