KATRA: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Friday raked up the issue of restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir at the flagging off of the maiden train to Kashmir by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this pilgrim town.
"There are four persons on this stage who were present at the inauguration of the Katra railway station (in 2014). You had just won the election, becoming the Prime Minister for the first time. MoS in PMO Jeetendra Singh was present then and our LG Manoj Sinha sahib was discharging duties as MoS Railways and I was here as chief minister.
"If you see, by the blessings of Mata (Vaishno Devi) Sinha has got a promotion and I had a demotion. I was chief minister of a state and now I am a CM of the UT. However, I believe that it will not take long to rectify it .... Jammu and Kashmir will again get the statehood under your watch only," Abdullah said.
The erstwhile state was reorganised into the Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh following the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019.
Abdullah said many people have dreamt of seeing a train chugging into Kashmir. "Even the British had dreamt of connecting Kashmir by train but they did not succeed. Their plan was to bring rail from Uri, along the banks of Jhelum, to connect with the country. What the British could not achieve has happened at your (Modi's) hands and Kashmir has been connected to the rest of the country," he added.
Abdullah paid rich tributes to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for declaring the train to Kashmir a project of national importance.
"It will be a grave mistake if I do not thank former PM Vajpayee. This project was undoubtedly started in 1983-84.... but it was completed only after Vajpayee declared it a project of national importance and made provisions in the budget," he said.