Harassment on pretext of police verification must stop, says Rashid

In his first meeting with J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, North Kashmir MP and Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) president Engineer Rashid on Saturday raised the issue of terminated government employees, police verifications and prisoners lodged in and outside jails of Jammu & Kashmir.

According to a party statement, Rashid on Saturday met the L-G at Raj Bhavan in Srinagar and briefed him about the “demands of the people of North Kashmir”. He also submitted a memorandum pertaining to the burning issues of North Kashmir Assembly segments.

Rashid urged the L-G to relook cases of terminated government employees and sought L-G’s intervention to release all prisoners lodged in and outside jails of Jammu & Kashmir, the statement said.

The Jammu and Kashmir Administration has so far dismissed over 50 employees under Article 311 of the Constitution, which deals with ‘dismissal, removal or reduction in rank of persons employed in civil capacities under the Union or a state’.

According to AIP, the Lok Sabha MP also briefed the L-G about the alleged difficulties and harassment that people were facing in regards police verifications. He said this harassment on the pretext of police verification must stop.

The statement said Rashid questioned the L-G: “When the Central Government could talk to the people of Ladakh and North East, why couldn’t it talk to the people of Jammu and Kashmir to resolve their legitimate issues and grant them political rights?”

While urging the L-G to ensure human rights, self-respect and dignity of common people were maintained at all costs, Rasheed also sought quick disposal of pending passport cases and urged the L-G to ensure that youth were given passports without getting them involved in unnecessary issues.

The party’s statement claimed that the L-G assured Rashid that he would certainly and seriously look into the issues brought into his notice by the concerned MP.