Govt escapes major embarrassment in Assembly
Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Oct 29: The Omar-led Government today escaped a major embarrassment in the Legislative Assembly after one of the National Conference MLAs supported by majority of his party colleagues was about to press for vote on a resolution that was rejected by the Government.
Follow the Daily Excelsior channel on WhatsApp
As the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) members also insisted for vote and were ready to join hands with the NC MLAs to pass the resolution, the former Speaker Mubarak Gul advised the MLA Bashir Ahmad Veeri against pressing for vote and instead asked him to withdraw the resolution.
Veeri found himself in a tight spot after Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Chowdhary, while rejecting his resolution, requested him to withdraw it, saying the Government was already working on addressing employment challenges in Jammu and Kashmir.
However, the strong support the resolution received from lawmakers across party lines, both from the ruling and opposition benches, left Veeri torn between siding with the Government or allowing the House to vote on the motion. As the situation grew tense and he was ready to press for vote, former Speaker Mubarak Gul counselled Veeri to withdraw his resolution, ultimately sparing the Government a potential embarrassment.
Allowing the vote could have divided the ruling party and embarrassed the Government on the floor of the House. Following Gul’s counselling, Veeri reluctantly withdrew his resolution, though several NC MLAs voiced dissent.
The drama unfolded during the Private Members’ Business when Veeri moved a resolution urging the House to unanimously recognise unemployment as Jammu and Kashmir’s most pressing challenge and to prioritise the creation of alternate employment avenues.
Quoting statistics from multiple surveys, Veeri said Jammu and Kashmir’s unemployment rate stood at 6.7%, nearly double the national average of 3.5%, while the youth unemployment rate was 17.4% and women’s unemployment 28.6%. Citing the Periodic Labour Force Survey 2024, he said the youth unemployment rate had reached 32%, the highest in the country, and according to CMIE data, overall unemployment was 32.8%. The Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (2025) pegged unemployment in the 15-24 age group at 46.3%, he added.
“This is the most challenging age group,” Veeri said, recalling how young first-time voters who participated enthusiastically in 2024 are pinning their hope in this Government. “They told me, ‘Uncle, we empowered you, but we have been treated unjustly. We have no employment opportunities.’”
Veeri also pointed out the need to strengthen agro-based industries and noted the fragility of key sectors like tourism and horticulture. He highlighted that untimely rains and landslides had kept the Jammu-Srinagar highway closed for 25 days during the harvest season, inflicting losses worth hundreds of crores on fruit growers.
He further raised the plight of thousands of daily wagers and contractual workers across departments such as Power Development, Forest, Agriculture, Fisheries, and Social Welfare, saying many of them had been serving for decades without job regularisation. “They are the backbone of our departments but are denied basic rights,” he said, urging the Government to “fast-track recruitments and ensure existing vacancies are filled.”
Responding to the debate, Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary praised Veeri’s intent but said the Government was already addressing unemployment through various measures, including Mission Yuva. “We inherited a chaotic system, but we have now begun Mission Yuva to create 1,27,000 enterprises and generate 4,25,000 jobs,” Chowdhary told the House. He said the Government was “working towards youth” and assured that it was committed to providing employment to one lakh people.
The post BJP was ready to support NC MLA’s resolution rejected by Govt appeared first on Daily Excelsior.