M A I N   N E W S

Council okays autonomy report
Tribune News Service

SRINAGAR, June 27 — The Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister said here today that a ministerial team would be sent to different states in the country to meet representatives of various parties to project his party’s viewpoint on the autonomy issue.

He was speaking at the concluding session of the state Legislative Council here, which adopted the resolution already passed by the State Legislative Assembly on Monday with regard to the State Autonomy Committee Report. The council later passed the resolution with a voice vote. The Chairman of the council, Mr Abdul Rashid Da adjourned the House sine die. With this the special session of the state Legislatures which discussed the State Autonomy Committee Report concluded here today.

The Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah, said he had also urged the Central Government to constitute a similar ministerial committee to discuss the autonomy committee report. 

“This would pave the way for a dialogue, which is necessary for upholding the democratic values”, the Chief Minister said in the Legislative Council.

In his hour-long speech in the Upper House, the Chief Minister said the report of the Regional Autonomy Committee was also being looked into thoroughly and it would take some time to finalise it. He said his party does “not want to keep any lacuna in the Regional Autonomy report,” and added the report would be put before the House much before the next Assembly elections.

Referring to the report of State Autonomy Committee as tabled before the Houses of the two legislatures, the Chief Minister told the BJP leaders, who had been opposing the move of the ruling National Conference, “either convince us or be convinced”. He said an idea, a law had been put forth and asked the opposition leaders to give a thorough reading to its details. He said this was a move to “scuttle talks with the Hurriyat Conference”.

The Chief Minister sand no party, be it the National Conference, the BJP or the Congress, was responsible for the increase in militancy in Jammu and Kashmir. “Those sitting across the border are responsible for militancy”. He also referred to migration by the residents of a village in Jammu region to the other side of the border. “When they return to this country, we will come to know the reasons behind their migration”, Dr Abdullah said. He said a number of people living along the Line of Control were passing through a difficult phase, as the enemy continued to fire in these areas leading to the continued troubles for the residents.