'Harebrained tactics': Mehbooba on deployment of Army to power stations

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Monday criticised the government for deploying the Army to operate power stations in Jammu.

The Army was deployed to the power stations to restore electricity as employees of the Union territory's Power Development Department (PDD) went on indefinite strike from Friday night.

The PDD employees had opposed the Jammu and Kashmir government's decision to privatise assets of the department and merge it with the Power Grid Corporation of India.

Mufti alleged the plan for privatisation in the power sector was part of a larger "loot" of the Union territory's natural resources. She tweeted, “GOI has made its criminal agenda behind scrapping J&Ks special status clear. Motive behind state sponsored loot of our natural resources - illegal auction of sand mining to outsiders, conversion of agricultural land to privatising power transmission is to plunge J&K into chaos.”

She argued, “Bringing the Army into such matters has further exposed their fake good governance narrative & ensure that people here live in perpetual fear of the jackboot. Such harebrained tactics & policies will only deepen the sense of alienation & suffocation that people of J&K feel.”

Omar Abdullah, another former chief minister, had also criticised the deployment of the Army to power stations. He tweeted on Sunday, “There no bigger admission of failure for a civilian administration than to call upon the army, it means a total breakdown of governance has been accepted by the J&K government.”

Divisional Commissioner of Jammu Raghav Langer had told mediapersons on Sunday the government had decided to put on hold a joint venture between the Jammu and Kashmir Power Transmission Corporation Limited and the Power Grid Corporation of India. He defended the power sector reforms as “inevitable”.