Parliament proceedings | Give us same rights to progress and development: Farooq Abdullah

"People there do not have access to 4G facility, when this is available to everyone else across the country," says NC leader Farooq Abdullah

National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah speaks in the Lok Sabha during the ongoing Monsoon Session of Parliament, in New Delhi on September 19, 2020. Photo: LSTV/PTI

National Conference leader Dr. Farooq Abdullah said in the Lok Sabha on Saturday that the people of Jammu and Kashmir should have the same rights to progress and development as the rest of the country. The “sad reality of today is the fact that children in Kashmir are not even able to get quality education due to various reasons. People there do not have access to 4G facility, when this is available to everyone else across the country.”

Like India was now in talks with China to resolve various issues, “we need to hold talks with the other neighbouring country as well because people are dying every day, border skirmishes are on the rise. We need to find some solution,’’ he said.

TMC MP Saugata Ray, also speaking during Zero Hour, said the situation in J&K, even after one year of abrogation of Article 370, was a continued cause of concern. He demanded the release of all 230 political leaders who were in detention in Kashmir.

“The current situation there is such that political leaders are still not released, journalists are being harassed, state human rights commission is closed, education of children is adversely hit and jails have become COVID-19 hotspots. We demand that the situation be remedied immediately,’’ he said.

Sumalatha’s plea

MP Sumalatha Ambareesh, raising the issue of ‘imposition’ of Hindi, especially in the Southern states, said the insistence of learning and using Hindi language by the Central government would kill the regional languages. “This is not acceptable,’’ she said.

In fact, several government schemes were not able to reach the common man because of the Hindi language barrier. “We love Hindi language but we love our mother tongue more”,’ she asserted.