Asserting that a popular government holds the key to address problems of the people, National Conference (NC) president Omar Abdullah on Thursday said his party alone was capable of safeguarding the unity and integrity of Jammu and Kashmir."NC is the only party which can safeguard the unity and integrity of Jammu and Kashmir, restore its special position and is capable of providing relief to the helpless people from the exploitive elements," Omar said addressing a convention of party workers from Charar-e-Sharief assembly constituency.Attacking the previous PDP-congress coalition government, Omar said "instead of healing touch (much publicised slogan of PDP), PDP soaked the blood of people, sold out land to the Amarnath Shrine board and sowed the seeds of large-scale corruption and allowed unemployment grow during its six year rule."Referring to his party's regime (1996-2002), he said his father Farooq Abdullah formed the government when the clouds of war were hovering between India and Pakistan and the killing of innocents was the order of the day."But despite these drawbacks, the NC government motivated the Centre to announce a ceasefire in 2000. Five top Hizbul commanders then came forward and the process of talks was set in motion," he said."The state was in deep economic distress, but our government provided adequate power to the people and charged merely Rs 50 from them," he said."Today, the electricity system has virtually collapsed and the people are forced to stay under darkness for as long as 15 hours despite paying heavy electricity bills", he added.On the development front, he said the NC government constructed road from Srinagar to the shrine of Sufi saint Sheikh Noor-ud-din Noorani at Chrar-e-Sharief but during the coalition rule only stone laying functions were organised."A stone laying function was organised for the construction of a bridge at Chadoora onSrinagar-Chrar-e-Sharief road in 2002 but so far the bridge has not come up," he said.Party candidate from Chrar-e-Sharief Abdul Rahim Rather, in his address, said restoration of autonomy was the single agenda of the party."With your support, our party will came to power and ensure that the autonomy is restored to the state," he said.He said that NC will provide immediate allowance to the educated unemployed in the state if his party is voted to power.He also assured the people that his party will eradicate corruption, improve the education system and restore the position of the state in health and tourism sectors.
