Jammu, 05 June (H.S.): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA R.S.Pathania on Friday said that if Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary lacks the moral conscience to resign following allegations made by MLAs of the ruling alliance, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah should immediately shunt him out.

Pathania, who represents the Udhampur East segment, said the Chief Minister should sack the Deputy CM from the Council of Ministers given that MLAs from the ruling alliance have levelled serious accusations against him.

“If he lacks the moral conscience to resign, the government and the Chief Minister should shunt him out of the Cabinet,” he said.

He alleged “serious irregularities and malpractices” in the Roads & Buildings Department.

Pathania further claimed that the Mining Department had “become a den of corruption” and that “illegal mining has been institutionalised.”

“You have emptied the riverbeds and drains. When flood water comes, it enters our homes like it falls on a steel plate,” he added.

On NC’s recent Dachigam meeting, Pathania dismissed it as “just a picnic hobnob” aimed at diverting the attention of the people and the media.

Pathania accused the NC-led government of “fraud, lies and deception” on poll promises.

He said the people of J&K had given NC a strong mandate with great hope but they have failed to fulfill a single promise.

He also accused the government of failing to regularise daily-wagers. “In the first session, the CM says we will set up a committee. In the second session, he says the committee is on its job. And in almost all sessions, till he is ousted from power, he will say the same,” he said, recalling a similar cabinet sub-committee from 2008–2014 whose report “never saw the light of day.”

Pathania said that Jammu and Kashmir Government has failed in the last 19 months despite “historic” central support.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Krishan Kumar