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| Modern maharajas treat their praja with disdain | | I am a PDP minister and I can't be contacted! | | Peerzada Ummer
Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, June 22: Before becoming ministers four months ago, most of the PDP leaders from Kashmir Valley were largely accessible to public. But once they assumed office, they have changed their mobile numbers, apparently to remain inaccessible to the same people who voted them to power.
To know how accessible they are, Early Times called many senior PDP leaders, including Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu and Education Minister Syed Naeem Akhtar Andrabi, the close aides of Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
The first disappointment is met while visiting the website of General Administrative Department which publishes the contact numbers of the state's who's who. Most of the contact numbers are incorrect, and even two ministers share a common number while some numbers do not exist at all.
For example, the numbers of Agriculture Minister Ghulam Nabi Lone have been mentioned as 9419043087 and 9419000668. The first number is also mentioned against the name of R&B Minister Altaf Bukhari. Lone's other number 9419000668 continues to remain 'switched off'.
There are ministers who cannot be contacted as their contact numbers are not displayed on the GAD website. And then there are contact numbers which are on 'call divert', and some even wrong.
The contact number of Syed Basharat Ahmed Bukhari, the Minister for Law, Justice & Parliamentary Affairs and Relief & Rehabilitation, phone continues to remain off since he assumed office. And if accidentally his phone rings, people say Bukhari, a former radio jockey, loathes picking up the call or returning it.
Hoping against hope, if you try to call Finance Minister Drabu on his number 9797881111, it is received by one of his relatives. After interrogating you and wasting your five minutes, the man on the other side says that he is not privy to the minister's personal number that he uses.
Education Minister Syed Naeem Akhtar Andrabi's number as described by the GAD website is 9419000963, but the phone remains 'switched off' for the entire day.
Revenue Minister Javaid Mustafa Mir too seems to be using a different number than the one given by him to the government website for the public convenience.
Meanwhile, sources said that most of the ministers have changed their numbers (which they had before becoming minister) and are given on the GAD website.
Such a trend has exposed claims of the state dispensation of being people-friendly and connected with the masses.
"Irony is that even in this age when the world is just a mouse click away from you, the ministers of Kashmir are behaving like typical autocrats who treat the people with disdain. A minister would only listen to your issues if you are is his loyal sycophant," said a netizen Waheed Sofi of Srinagar. |
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