STATE TIMES NEWS
SRINAGAR: Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Saturday blamed National Conference Working President and former Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah for “trying to set state on fire by making allegations and completely wrong inferences” about setting up of Sainik colony in Kashmir.
“This makes it clear that how former Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah is trying to set state a fire by making baseless allegations and compleltey wrong inferences,” government spokesman and Minister for Education Naeem Akhtar told a Srinagar based news agency.
“When the government has made clear it amply clear that no such land is allotted or is planning to allot, why should Omar Abdullah impute such motives as very emotive issues and try to disrupt the peace and process in the state,” Akhtar said.
Accusing NC damaging the state, Akhtar said that the party has already done tremendous damage through its negative policies and at a time when there is a consensus in the country on the special status of the state.
“Omar is trying to create fear psychosis among the people. PDP-BJP government is not a government led by Omar Abdullah who had declared that he will remove AFSPA during his tenure and kept changing the timetable till eternity,” he said.
“Omar Abdullah is demanding to return the power projects which his family has gifted to NHPC,” he said.
National Conference Working President Omar Abdullah on Saturday said the State Government’s proposal to go ahead with allocating hundreds of kanals of land in the Valley for a proposed ‘Sainik Colony’ could be a ruse to settle non-State-subjects in Kashmir and hence bypass Article 370.
Earlier, the State Government this morning made it clear that no land has been allotted or is being allotted anywhere in Kashmir for any housing project in the name of Sainik Colony.
“Like some other sections of the working class and professionals, the ex-servicemen belonging to the State have been demanding land for a housing colony, but no allotment of land for any such project has been made anywhere in the Valley,” Minister for Education and State Government Spokesman, Naeem Akhtar said while referring to the reports appearing in a section of the press in this regard.
He said these reports seem to be highly motivated and parochial and are aimed at disturbing peace in the State at a time when tourism and business activity has just started picking up. “Unfortunately, with the onset of tourism and business season in Kashmir, there has been a perpetual effort by certain vested interests to disturb peace in the State,” he said and added that any attempt at creating doubts on a non-existent issue are against the interests of the people of the State.
Urging the stakeholders including the civil society representatives to be cautious of the designs of such elements who want to vitiate the atmosphere in the State at a time when the local economy has just started recovering after suffering immensely in the devastating floods of September 2014, Akhtar said such unsettling efforts seem to be completely out of place at a time when consensus is building across the political divide in the country over safeguarding, protecting and upholding the special status guaranteed to Jammu and Kashmir in the Indian Constitution.
“We once again reiterate the State Government’s commitment in this regard which has been clearly restated in the PDP-BJP ‘Agenda of Alliance’ as well,” he said.
Ruse to settle non-state subjects: NC
Srinagar: Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday termed as a possible “ruse to settle non-state subjects” in the Valley the PDP-BJP government’s reported proposal to allocate land for setting up a ‘Sainik colony’.
He said the “glaring contradiction” of the Mehbooba Mufti government on the proposal, which is in “violation” of Article 370, has given rise to apprehensions about their “underlying political motive”.
“The PDP-BJP government’s glaring contradictions on the Sainik colony proposal has given rise to apprehensions about their underlying political motive.
From the government’s denial that the land is being provided to the ‘Sainik Colony’ to the administration officially writing to concerned officers to identify the land for the colony, the PDP-BJP government of Mehbooba Mufti has come a full circle.
“Considering their record of over the past one year, people have serious apprehensions. It could be a ruse to settle non-state subjects in Kashmir and hence bypass Article 370,” Omar said addressing party workers in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district.
Omar, working president of the opposition National Conference (NC), said Mehbooba Mufti continues to be “vague” on this issue and it seems she has been implicitly ordered to not interfere in the matter.
“Is the Mehbooba Mufti government trying to re-enact the 2008 turmoil where a PDP government set the state on fire in violation of the special status by giving away hundreds of kanals of land to the Shrine Board in violation of legal norms, Article 370 and other constitutional provisions? “There seems to be an uncanny similarity between what PDP did in 2008 and what the PDP-BJP government is trying to do today with the ‘Sainik Colony’ proposal,” Omar said.
He said Mehbooba Mufti’s “shocking exclusion” from the high-level meeting on J-K, chaired by the Union Home minister in Delhi, was an “unmistakable example of her dis-empowerment” and how she was “squarely” responsible for “bartering away the sanctity and constitutional mandate of the Chief Minister’s office to remain in power”.
“It seems her silence on the ‘Sainik Colony’ issue was also a result of her complicity in such political maneuvers that are aimed at weakening the state’s special status and altering its demographic character,” Omar said.
Alleging that the chief minister “cowered” into silence and “rank inaction” in both the NIT as well as Handwara incidents, he said, the central government dealt with these situations directly, “completely bypassing” the state administration as well as the elected Chief Minister.
This seems to have become a norm now and the most tragic part is that Mehbooba sees no problem in her open, public marginalisation by Delhi and is hence endorsing how the Chief Minister’s position is being undermined. She seems to have been reduced to be a non-essential formality in the scheme of things,” Omar said.
Condemning PDP’s alleged U-turns, Omar said the PDP-BJP government’s “back-pedalling” on promises of revocation of AFSPA and the return of power projects to the state were examples of how the “sacrosanct” mandate of the people of J-K was “violated and sold”.
“PDP’s actions of opportunism has been in stark contrast to its pre-election rhetoric and grandstanding. The same Mehbooba who had publicly said that BJP could never be acceptable to the people of the state has gone on to assume the role of ridiculing Muslim countries and societies for their internal struggles. This is a poignant, almost poetic, example of her hypocrisy and defines the politics of her party,” he said.
Meanwhile, Omar took a dig at the Chief Minister on Twitter, saying after her yesterday’s meeting for improving the traffic, the condition on the roads was “worse than before” today.
“Yesterday @mehbooba_mufti took a meeting to improve the traffic management in Srinagar & today things are so much worse than before,” Omar wrote on Twitter.