Former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is touring the Chenab valley in Jammu, on Saturday said locals were being ignored in employment in hydel projects, and pledged to raise the issue with the Prime Minister.
“Thousands of local educated, skilled and semi-skilled youth are being ignored for various jobs in local hydel power projects. Many outsiders are being given preference. Even the small and big contracts are being accorded to the outsiders and hundreds of labourers in these power projects have been brought from outside the Union Territory of J&K,” Mr. Azad said.
He said unemployment had touched new heights in J&K. “If needed, I would meet the Prime Minister soon and take up the issue of local youth from the Chenab belt with regard to jobs in power projects,” Mr. Azad said.
Mr. Azad, who is launching a political campaign from the Union Territory, said J&K can only progress when different communities join hands. “There is no scope for politics of appeasement of a particular community. It has to be inclusive,” he said.
He sought an end to targeted killings by militants in the Kashmir Valley. “Anyone willing to return should be provided security and accommodation,” he added.
On his resignation from the Congress last month, Mr. Azad said, “I had two options — either to see the Congress party dying while sitting mute inside, or come out of it, wage a struggle for justice to the people. So, I opted for the second option and came back to serve my people in my home State.”
Mr. Azad, who will start his tour of the Kashmir Valley from Sunday, said, “People’s support has multiplied compared to the meetings I had held as a Congress leader in the past.”
