Mehbooba Mufti barred from visiting the Nallah Rambiara in Pulwama, says ‘Non-local mining contractors looting our streams’

Srinagar: Former Chief Minister and PDP President Mehbooba Mufti was Saturday stopped from visiting the Nallah Rambiara in Pulwama district where allegedly illegal mining by non-local contractors is going on. Mehbooba Mufti today visited Petipora and met some party workers there.

Later she tried to visit the nallah near Achan, Petipora and SIDCO to see the situation due to the mining.

However she was stopped by the police.

Talking to the media, she said that Kashmir has been “turned into a jail post August 05, 2019, where the resources of Kashmiris are being looted.”

“Despite having no permission, without allotment of tenders, the sand, boulders and other material is being allowed to be looted by non-local contractors.”

“The springs and lands are drying due to this mining. Local people have been rendered jobless and the villages too are in threat because the mining has turned the flow of nallah towards residential areas,” she added.

She said that in order to give benefit to non-local contractors, the livelihood of thousands of local people is under threat as they have been rendered jobless.

“Our own material is being sold to us on very high rates,” she said.

She said that the situation of streams and rivers in Kashmir as well as in Jammu is the same and loot is witnessed everywhere. (GK)