It is really intriguing that the person who was elected as Chief Minister by the people in Jammu and Kashmir with the faith that he will fulfill the promises made during the election campaign has now started shifting his stances whether it was 200 units of free electricity or 12 domestic LPG cylinders per year and many more.
It is unjustified that Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who had promised the much sought after relief for the poor strata of the society that every household will get 200 units of free electricity per month, is now expecting that people will get satisfied with the fact that there would be no general increase in electricity tariffs across Jammu and Kashmir for the year 2025-26. While maintaining that his government, given its commitment to prioritize people’s welfare, was keeping electricity affordable for all, he also stated that the Time of Day (ToD) tariff rates also remained unchanged, providing relief to households. The Chief Minister, who is also holding the charge of Power Development Department (PDD) has shared this clarification through a post on his official ‘X’ handle.
It is pertinent to mention that a couple of days before Peoples Conference supremo and the MLA Handwara, Sajad Lone has accused the National Conference-led government of hiking power tariff besides having failed in fulfilling its poll-promises, including the one related to free 200 units of electricity, during a presser in Srinagar. The Peoples Conference leader has also termed the NC’s promises of 200 free units of electricity, 12 gas cylinders, Rs 5,000 for unemployed youth and one lakh government jobs as a hoax.
The way the CM Omar has been skipping the reference about 200 units for free electricity, and for that matter other promises made in run up to Assembly polls, one can guess that either the man is ‘powerless’ to take strong decisions in favour of people or he has simply given up for the sake of remaining in power without exerting more in the direction to ensure justice delivery or welfare of the common masses, contrary to the stance which helped people in electing him and his party to come to power in J&K.
For sure, the way the CM has been shifting stands, the outcome of the next polls in J&K is taking shape with no chance for the incumbents to repeat what they had achieved last time during the Assembly poll battle.
It is the right time that CM Omar Abdullah and his ilk in the National Conference should once again go through their election manifesto and start working to achieve the promises made as soon as possible because the people having have been gauging things only on the basis of number of promises fulfilled so far.
