The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Sunday, May 5, 2002, Chandigarh, India

J A M M U & K A S H M I R

Probe misuse of funds: BJP
Tribune News Service

Jammu, May 4
The state unit of the BJP has urged the Chief Election Commission and the Centre to take concrete measures for ensuring free and fair Assembly poll in Jammu and Kashmir.

The demand was contained in a resolution adopted at a two-day meeting of the executive committee which also called for a thorough probe into the “misuse of central funds and security related funds.”

It said the probe should be conducted by a central agency and the Government of India should set up a cell to monitor the proper utilisation of the funds.

It also urged the CEC to send a fact-finding team to Jammu so that it could investigate into the reports of malpractices committed by the ruling National Conference (NC) during the byelection to the Lok Sabha seat.

The resolution demanded that citizenship rights be granted to Pakistan and PoK refugees, who had been living in Jammu since 1947. It called for immediate scrapping of the Resettlement Act.

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Expressing concern over the harassment caused to local residents, the resolution demanded winding up of the state subject review committee and notices issued to bona fide citizens be withdrawn.

Releasing the copies of the resolution, senior party leader Nirmal Singh said the executive committee had also requested the Prime Minister to accept the resignation of Mr Omar Abdullah, Minister of State for External Affairs.

Dr Nirmal Singh said the NC had failed to contain the activities of militants.

He said time had come for the Central Government to evolve a mechanism under which people in Jammu and Ladakh regions got due share in political power. He said hitherto the two regions had been given a raw deal by the valley-based political leaders and bureaucrats.

Dr Nirmal Singh, in reply to a question, described the NC more dangerous than the Congress. He said by raising the demand for the restoration of pre-1953 constitutional status to the state the NC leadership was trying to divide the state on communal lines and win the elections.

He wanted the Centre to take a serious note of the hidden agenda of the NC and invite people and leaders of different political hues and ideology to take part in the elections.

Soldiers walk through the debris of gutted residential houses at Karimabad village, 57 km north of Srinagar, on Saturday. The Army authorities said 10 residential houses were gutted and six separatist militants were killed during a gunfight between the militants and Indian soldiers. — Reuters