Exclusive interview Union Food minister Ram Bilas Paswan by Kashmir News Service in Srinagar during his vist

Suggesting separatists to shun violence and participate in elections, Union Food minister Ram Bilas Paswan said that instead of giving boycott calls, separatist leaders should prove their representative character in a democratic way.

Commenting on Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Geelani’s poll boycott call, he said: “Geelani has himself fought elections so he should know the importance of the elected government. See, Geelani has fought a dozen elections, even parliamentary elections. So he should not stop people to cast their vote and I suggest him to cast his vote also in the coming assembly elections,” he said.

“Violence has never benefited anybody. I suggest all the masses of Jammu and Kashmir including separatists who are on the path of violence to give up violence and join the elections for a better Kashmir” Paswan said in an interview to KNS.

He expressed hope that better sense will prevail among the Hurriyat leaders and they will participate in the election process to choose their preferred government. “The elected government will be in their interest and the interest of the people,” he said.

Paswan said that nothing has so for either been achieved or will be achieved in future by violence. “I hope that they will understand it in a better sense,” he said and added that elections are the only means to address  problems and solve issues in a conducive atmosphere.

Commenting on Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Geelani’s poll boycott call, he said: “Geelani has himself fought elections so he should know the importance of the elected government. See, Geelani has fought a dozen elections, even parliamentary elections. So he should not stop people to cast their vote and I suggest him to cast his vote also in the coming assembly elections,” he said.

Commenting on the distribution of ration in Jammu and Kashmir, the Union minister said that once the state government implements the Food Security Act, the government of India will take the necessary measures to ensure  transparency in the system.

“We have given six months to the state government to implement the Act so that people can get subsidized foodgrains in a good system. So far, eleven states have implemented the law, the Jammu and Kashmir government have to prepare the list of beneficiaries, issue cards to them and set up infrastructure to carry out the programme,” the Union minister said.

He said it is necessary to make the public distribution system totally transparent through end-to-end computerization so that the benefits of the National Food Security Act reach the deserving people.