National Conference hopeful of statehood restoration to J&K in Parliament’s budget session
SRINAGAR: The ruling National Conference (NC) on Thursday said they are hopeful that statehood to Jammu and Kashmir would be restored during the budget session of parliament beginning tomorrow.
“Dual power system is not good for any place. It weakens the institutions,” senior NC leader and MLA Tanvir Sadiq told reporters.
He said a huge mandate has been given by the people in the Assembly polls and it should be respected.R
“People have big aspirations and they want their work to be done. However, in the dual power system in J&K, there are some issues and some works are facing hiccups. We have to correct it”.
“For this reason, we are demanding early restoration of statehood,” said Tanvir, who is a close aide of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.
“We hope that statehood will be restored in the budget session. If that happens, we will be able to address the public issues. We would try to resolve the issue of unemployed youth and daily wagers and it will be resolved only when statehood is restored”.
He said they are happy about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remarks at Sonamarg while inaugurating the Z-Morh tunnel.
“PM said in Sonamarg that promises made by Modi are not false,” he said.
In response to a question, Tanvir said, “It is easy to take the centre head-on or fight with the centre. It is easy to stage protests and create tension-like situations but there is no need to lock horns with the centre as the Prime Minister and Home Minister have made commitment to statehood restoration with people of J&K and there are also the SC observations”.
“We believe that the promise made by PM Modi to the people of J&K will be fulfilled. The parliament session is taking place and we hope that the statehood issue will be raised and peoples’ rights will be returned,” added the NC MLA.
The Omar Abdullah government in its first cabinet meeting on October 19 last year passed a resolution demanding the restoration of statehood in its original form to J&K. The Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and other central leaders and handed them copies of the resolution.
The restoration of statehood and Article 370 was the main plank on which NC contested the Assembly polls.