STATE TIMES NEWS
SRINAGAR: MLA R.S Pura Dr. Gagan Bhagat on Wednesday said that Bhartiya Janta Party is fully committed towards its stand on Article 370 and has not forgotten its core issues for which the party has been fighting for more than five decades. He stated this while speaking in the debate for Grants on Home, Tourism, GAD, Planning, Tribal Affairs and other departments headed by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti. He is the maiden BJP MLA, who has openly spoken in the Assembly on Article 370 since party’s coalition with PDP. The matter was raised by one of the PDP members in the debate that Article 370 is very strong and even BJP does not talk on it since its Coalition have been formed with the PDP. Upon this, the opposition members belonging to National Conference and Congress said that PDP has made BJP speechless and it has forgotten its stand on the aforesaid issue. Taking strong exception to the statement of the PDP member, Dr. Gagan said that BJP is fully committed towards its stand on Article 370 though changing the developmental profile of Jammu and Kashmir is presently top on agenda due to party’s commitment with the leadership of its coalition partner PDP. He advised the PDP member to focus only on development issues which are the basis of formation of State coalition. While talking on the home department, he suggested improving the women police officials’ percentage, which according to him is currently 3.5 per cent. “Mere opening of Women Police Stations will not solve the problem since there is need of creating women cells inside every police station and J&K should also go for 33 per cent reservation for women’s in the police force on the lines of Gujarat, Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh, and Andaman and Nicobar”, he added.