M A I N   N E W S

J&K autonomy report passed
Oppn stages walkout
Tribune News Service and agencies

SRINAGAR, June 26 — The Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly today passed a resolution which approved the State Autonomy Committee (SAC) report, and urged the Central and state governments to “take positive and effective steps for implementation of the same”.

While opposing the motion, BJP and Congress members staged a walkout from the House, as the motion was passed by a voice vote in 87-member House. The Opposition members of the BJP, Congress and the JD (U) came to the well of the House and staged a walkout to register their parties stand on the autonomy report. The members, however, soon returned to the House.

Earlier, the Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah, replied to the discussion.

The Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Mr Pyare Lal Handoo, tabled a “substantative substitute motion” in place of two motions moved on April 8 last along with the amendments moved thereto by three ruling NC MLAs, Sadiq Ali, Mohmmad Shafi Bhat and G.M. Bawan. The State Autonomy Committee (SAC) report had been placed on the table of the House on April 13, 1999. The motion was placed at the end of a five-day-long discussion on the SAC report, for which a special session of the two Houses of the state legislature was called here from June 19 last.

“This House having discussed the report of the State Autonomy Committee placed on the table of this hon’ble House on April 13, 1999, records its approval of the same and its acceptance of the recommendations made therein and, further, demands of the Union Government and the Government of Jammu and Kashmir to take positive and effective steps for the implementation of the same”, the motion tabled by the Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Mr Pyare Lal Handoo, stated.

At the conclusion of the historic session, the Speaker, Mr Abdul Ahad Vakil, thanked the members for participating in the lively discussion during the six-day long special session of the House. He appreciated the House for according this historic document of the State Autonomy Committee’s report the status it deserved. He said a message had gone out of the House that the people of the state were capable of resolving their problems through Constitutional and democratic means.