SRI NAGAR: With centre stating that situation in Valley has returned to normal, parties have now renewed their demands for restoration of the statehood to Jammu and Kashmir. However, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been tight-lipped on this.
Former minister and president of Jammu-based socio-political organisation Duggar Saddar Sabha, Gulchain Singh Charak said Union Home Minister Amit Shah assured the Parliament on August 5 that statehood would be restored once the situation improves.
“Centre has been repeatedly saying that normalcy has returned. In such a scenario, there is no logic for keeping J&K as Union Territory. The Home Minister should fulfil his promise and restore statehood without further delay,” he said.
Charak said after lot of struggle and sacrifices of people, J&K had become a state and it was a secular state.
The centre on August 5 scrapped Articles 370 and 35A, which granted special status and special privileges to J&K residents, and bifurcated J&K state into two UTs– Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.State Congress spokesman Ravindra Sharma said scrapping state’s special status and bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into two UTs was unconstitutional.
“They unilaterally disbanded and divided the state and downgraded it to UT,” he said.
J&K National Panthers Party president and former minister Harsh Dev Singh said the centre downgraded J&K into a UT. “What is a UT. The centre should restore our statehood,” he said.
Referring to Home Minister’s statement that normalcy has been restored in J&K, Singh said, “When Home Minister has been saying it, then why the central government is not restoring our statehood.”