Annoyed by the allocation of Rs 356 crore for Dal Lake in Kashmir by the Centre, BJP state president Shamsher Singh Manhas said, "Be it Central government or Congress-NC alliance in the state, Jammu does not fit in their scheme of things and they are only bothered about Kashmir."
"There is huge misappropriation of funds obtained from Centre for development of lakes in Kashmir...The Congress has completely ignored Mansar and Surinsar lakes of Jammu...In the past, Centre had approved Rs 2,200 crore for development of Dal and Wullar lake in Kashmir," he said.
Manhas said that successive governments in the state, which have been run either by NC-Congress coalition or PDP-Congress alliance, has always given preference to Kashmir.
"Kashmir has remained a core constituency of PDP and NC, therefore their loyalties to the region can be understood but the total surrender of the Congress before them is most unfortunate," he said.
The people of Jammu displayed faith in Congress while returning maximum Congress candidates to the state assembly in 2008 elections with the hope that their grievances will be taken note of and discrimination with Jammu will end. However, Congress formed alliance with NC and sidelined issues related to Jammu, Manhas said.