JKNPP files contempt petition in SC against J

Jammu, July 2 (UNI) Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) supremo Bhim Singh today said his party has filed a contempt petition in the Supreme Court against Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, the Chief Secretary and other state government officials.

Addressing a press conference, Prof Singh said they had filed a contempt petetion in the apex court against the Chief Minister, the Chief Secretary and others for not implementing a court order given in July last year for considering migrant families for relief on par with Kashmiri pandit migrants.

The petition will be listed before the apex court on July 22.

On record, there are 2,202 families who had migrated from various places due to militancy in the Jammu region, but had never been provided adequate relief, he informed.

The Panthers Party chairman confessed that his party's four-and-a-half-year association with the Congress and PDP-led state government was a wrong decision, and added he would work to highlight the problems of the masses, particularly of the ''discriminated'' dogras.

Prof Singh also demanded from the state government a white paper on the number of West Pakistani refugees in the state and of those who were allotted land in Jammu and Kashmir.

Quoting the Constitution of the state, he said, ''Those (refugees) who had acquired immoveable properties in Jammu and Kashmir according to law before 1957 (adoption of Constitution) are entitled to the state subject rights.'' Mr Singh said he would file a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court for providing social and political rights to the Pakistani refugees in the state.

''We are living in a state which is totally paralysed and ruled by sick leaders,'' he said, asserting that corruption has increased in the state during the coalition regime.

UNI