Srinagar, Feb 4 (IANS) Opposition leader Mehbooba Mufti Tuesday blamed the Jammu and Kashmir government of inter-regional discrimination through its announcement to create new administrative units in the state.
“The National Conference has always treated institutions with contempt and the expert committees on reorganisation of administrative units were no exception to this rule,” the People’s Democratic Party president said at a media conference here.
“The government ultimately threw the expert advice out of window and decided to go by the electoral calculations of the allies. No rules, no guidelines, no criteria were applied and an entirely new administrative map has been proposed,” she said.
The PDP leader said the state government has pitched villages against one other through its announcement to set up 659 new administrative units, comprising sub-divisions, tehsils and community development blocks without application of mind on topography and administrative exigency.
“Given this state’s topography and distances, new units were always required. But the way the government executed its plans with an eye to the elections has generated a dangerous situation,” she said.
On the reported deadlock over the creation of the new administrative units between the National Conference and the Congress, Mufti said it was “a fixed match to divert public attention from the failures of the government and create a new political discourse in the state when elections are round the corner”.