NC, Congress, PDP responsible for Jammu discrimination: BJP

JAMMU: Jammu and Kashmir BJP today alleged that Jammu region is facing discrimination on all the fronts by Kashmir centric political parties.

"Jammu region is facing discrimination on all fronts from the very beginning. We endorse the statement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on discrimination with Jammu region by Kashmir centric political parties," party's state spokesperson Arun Kumar Gupta told reporters here.

Gupta said "It is irony that the voice of people of Jammu who are known for their secular and nationalist credentials has always been suppressed and discriminated."

"The successive governments at the Centre have been pumping in thousands of crores of rupees in the J-K for the development but almost the entire money has been siphoned off for so called development in Kashmir, at the cost of development of Jammu and Ladakh regions," he said.

Unfortunately, even development in Kashmir too has not been to the satisfaction of the people, Gupta said.

Gupta said that the discrimination with the people of Jammu region got grossly exposed in early 60s when people were agitating for their rights in political, developmental and educational arena.

He claimed that the area of Jammu region is 26,293 sq km whereas the region of Kashmir is only 15,948 sq km which is almost half of the Jammu region but "if we talk about the Assembly seats, Jammu has only 36 seats to represent where as Kashmir have 47 seats. This shows the political discrimination with Jammu".

He alleged that 70 per cent of the budget is spent in Kashmir region while only 30 per cent is for the other regions of the state, as per record. Similar is the case with the funds granted by the Central government, he added.