JAMMU, March 08: Apni Party on Monday resolved to fight for the restoration of Statehood of J&K while celebrating the first foundation day of the Party in an impressive function in which thousands of leaders and workers including hundreds of women participated.
The function to celebrate the Party’s First Foundation day, as well as International Women’s Day, was organized at Gurjar Desh Charitable Trust, Channi Himmat in Jammu.
To mark the celebrations, thousands of party leaders including hundreds of women participated in the function from different parts of Jammu.
“J&K has been disempowered with the snatching of Statehood from the people of erstwhile State which has a long history. It was unfortunate. We do not support the downgrading of J&K to a Union Territory. Party has never accepted it,” said Senior Vice President, Ghulam Hassan Mir.
Mir was speaking before the thousands of jubilant leaders and workers on the completion of one year to the party’s foundation.
Besides, thousands of Party’s dedicated leaders and workers especially women, Vice President Aijaz Ahmed Khan, General Secretaries Vijay Bakaya, Vikram Malhotra, Provincial President Jammu Manjit Singh, Provincial Vice President Jammu Syed Asgar Ali, Provincial President Women Wing Namrata Sharma, State Coordinator OBC Madan Lal Chalotra, State Coordinator SC Bodh Raj Bhagat, Trade Union President J&K, Ajaz Kazmi, Jammu Central Coordinator Pranav Shagotra, Vice President J&K Youth Wing Raqeeq Ahmed Khan, General Secretary Abhay Bakaya, Provincial President Jammu Youth Wing Gourav Kapoor, Ex-MLA Faqir Nath, Ex-MLA Prem Lal, Ex-MLA Kamal Arora, and others were present on the occasion.
“The Govt should not ignore J&K by extending Lt Governor’s Rule in the erstwhile State where unemployment has increased and industrial sector has been suffering badly,” said Gh. Hassan Mir.
Earlier, Mir said that Apni Party was founded on March 8, 2020, and on this day International Women’s Day is also being celebrated.
“There is a coincidence between our foundation day and International Women’s Day. Hence, the Party is bound for the empowerment of women and our President Syed Mohammed Altaf Bukhari has already said that the Apni Party supports that there should be reservation in Assembly and Parliament. Our Party believes in social, economic and political empowerment of women in J&K,” said Mir.
Appreciating the new industrial policy, Mir said that the Govt should ensure 90% reservation of locals in skills and unskilled jobs. He expressed concern over the inflation of essential commodities, petrol, diesel, and cooking gas, and demanded that taxes should be reduced so that the increased prices of essential commodities drop.
“Apni Party believes in peace, development, and prosperity. We also believe in equal development of the Jammu and Kashmir region. We believe uniting, not in dividing people of two regions,” he said.
Speaking on the occasion, Vice President Apni Party Ajaz Ahmed Khan appreciated the people for their support to the party. “We are against the divisive forces and want the two regions to not suffer more. The politics of emotional blackmailing has ended. We believe in politics of truthfulness,” Khan added.
General Secretary Vijay Bakaya said that the Party has achieved a milestone with the support of ground leaders and workers. In one year, he said, Party has been able to win the trust of people especially youth.“
He said that “The Party President Syed Mohammed Altaf Bukhari was the only leader from J&K who pursued the age relaxation issue with the Govt of India in civil services, domicile issue and jobs reservation for locals.”
Meanwhile, General Secretary, Vikram Malhotra said that Jammu has seen a major political shift with the emergence of the Apni Party. “The Party has gained support from the people in places where BJP has strongholds. The people are attracted to the policies and agenda of the party. The BJP has befooled the people of Jammu for their vote bank and other political parties remained unsuccessful in fulfilling the promises of the people. It was only the Apni Party which has generated hopes among the people who remained unrepresented,” Malhotra said.
Provincial President Jammu Manjit Singh while speaking on the occasion said that the people in the border belt and Kandi area have joined the party in large numbers.
“Their routine issues remained unsolved. The people voted for BJP and sent their 25 MLAs to the erstwhile Assembly of J&K and even these MLAs were not in a position to solve the basic issues of water, electricity, and development,” said Manjit Singh.
He said that the Apni Party has emerged as hope among the people and assured that the party will not leave any stone unturned to work for the people.
Speaking on the occasion, Provincial Vice President Syed Asgar Ali said that people in Chenab Valley have remained neglected for decades and the Apni Party’s approach towards the public issues has won faith in the neglected region with respect to development.
He said that development of roads, poor water supply system, and employment of locals in ongoing power projects are the main concerns of the people and till date, they remained unaddressed.
Provincial President Women Wing Jammu, Namrata Sharma said that the Party has given ample importance to the women issues and has worked for its redressal.
“We do not give slogans but work on the ground with the women of the neglected section. We represent all the people. We never discriminate against people on the basis of region or religion or caste. Apni Party is a single political party which stands for unity in society,” she said.
Namrata Sharma represented hundreds of women from different parts of Jammu District who participated in the function.
J&K Trade Union President Ajaz Kazmi said that the concerns of the employees and daily wagers, in particular, have been highlighted by the Party from time to time and in future too, “we will work for the betterment of employees, and daily wagers.”
He said that the party’s fight for the genuine demands of the employees in Govt, PSU, and other sectors will continue.
Prominent leaders who attended the party function included Mohan Singh Bhatti, Bachan Chowdhary, Captain Mohan Lal Sharma, Tilak Raj Sharma, Saleem Alam, Babu Ram Bhagat, Raman Thapa, Master Lal Mohammad, Pallav Kumar, Mani Ram Sharma, Sarpanch Joginder Lal, Sarpanch Pritam Lal, Gambhir Singh, Ex-Sarpanch Gurjeet Singh, Sucha Singh, Pavneet Kaur, Meenu Sharma, Sunita Kumari, Parveen Kaur, Sharda Choudhary, Preeti, Jitto Devi, Rekha Kumari, Raman Kumari, Sunita Sawhney, Ajay Sawhney, Sanjay Malhotra, Shafqat Khokhar, Jyoti Vaid, Meenakshi Arora, Rani Devi, Sapna Gill, Rajinder Gupta, Antim Rathore, Swaroop Singh, Geeta Devi, Sandeep Gandotra, Ram Lal, Varun, Kundan, Parvinder Kaur, Raj Kumari, Neelam, Gulshan, Vicky, Ashwin Bhola, Vaibhav Chatoo, Rahul Chaodhary, Joginder Kumar, Tajinder Kumar, Gautam Mehra, Mukesh Sharma, Shamsher Singh, Sanjeev Singh,
Besides, active members of the Apni Party include Shardeesh Rana, Vaibhav Mattoo, Rinku Arora, Janmeet Bali, Sanjay Dhar, Sahil Mahajan, Rajinder Singh Dutta, Joginder Singh, Simranjeet Singh, Vijay Mangotra, Babu Ram Bhagat, Mohan Singh Bhatti, Bachan Choudhary, Raj Sharma, Dalbir Singh, Umar Malik, Mohinder Parihar, J.P Singh, Vinod Pandita, Vishal Jotshi, Ashraf Choudhary, Jatinder Singh, Pushp Dev Uppal, Farooq Chohan, Vipul Bali, Adv Tejinder Singh, Suhail Khajuria, Adv Zulkernain, Dr Rohit Gupta, Atul Sharma, Sandeep Gandotra, Hateshwar Singh, Shabir Kohli, Neta G, Abdul Ahmad, Mohd Ashraf Foji, Ikhlaq Ahmed, Vishal Kapahi, Madan Pragwalia, Shubham, Deepak Bradoo, Sheetal Singh, Kulwant Singh, Agham Singh, Jyoti Vaid, Ajay Rana, Ravi Kant Sharma, Jagdish Pandey, Shahil Khajuria, Ashraf Choudhary, Gohar Rashid Wani, and others.
The foundation day celebrations were also held at Rajouri, Poonch, Reasi, Doda, Kishtwar, Ramban, Udhampur, Vijaypur (Samba), Kathua, and other places in the division.
