New Delhi, December 3
In getting down to the task of “healing physical, psychological and emotional wounds” of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has presented the Centre with a list of demands which would enable his government continue its “healing touch.”

At the political level, Mr Sayeed has indicated that a committee of the newly elected MLAs would be set up to talk to the Centre on the issues concerning the state. Talks, he indicated, would not centre around the issue of autonomy as was the case with the previous National Conference government.

He indicated that the elected representatives in Jammu and Kashmir would talk to anyone specially appointed by the Centre. In this context, it was pointed out that Mr Arun Jaitley had been appointed as the pointman on Jammu and Kashmir by the Vajpayee government during the National Conference government in the state.

The Chief Minister also wants “other sections” in the state to be involved in the talks as promised by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in his Independence Day address to the nation.

Assiduously avoiding controversial issues during his maiden trip to the Capital as the Chief Minister, Mr Sayeed remained focused on the development needs of the state, saying that the NDA government understood the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Mufti government has identified several welfare schemes for the backward areas of the state for which funds had remained unutilised in the past. These included the Prime Minister’s “sadak yojna” for which Rs 5 crore had been allotted to Doda. The Centre had also earmarked lakhs of rupees for information technology development centres, the Indira Awas Yojna, Food for Work and the Border Areas Development Programme which had not been used.

The state government, which took a small but significant step of ensuring power supply in the evening hours, wants the Centre to foot the additional bill of Rs 30 crore per month till alternatives for power supply were explored.

Identifying the power projects which would help achieve the potential of 15,000 MW, the state government has urged the Centre to ask the NHPC to start work on the projects already approved.

While urging the Centre to raise Reserve Police batallions in the state, the Mufti government wants the Central Government offices in the state to fill up vacancies caused due to the turmoil of the past 13 years.

Convinced that a humane approach was the best way to combat militancy, the state government has asked the security agencies to be more lenient in frisking. The government also plans to move ahead with its programme of assimilating the Special Operations Group into the state police.

Another beginning that the Mufti government wants to make is on rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits in the Mattan Khirbhawani areas of the Kashmir valley. While the state government has allotted about Rs 15 crore for the project, it has sought Rs 100 crore from the Centre.

Regarding its agenda of rehabilitation of the victims of militancy, the Mufti government is not only seeking funds from the Centre but also from the corporates and individuals. A special CM’s fund has been created for the purpose, contributions to which will entail tax relief.

The Mufti government wants the Centre to extend the national highway to Uri and simultaneously start work on rail projects in some towns of the valley. The state government has given clearance to four-laning of the Pathankot-Jammu road.

Describing the controversy over the release of some separatist leaders by the state government as a “non-issue,” the Chief Minister, during his interface with the media in the Capital, steered clear of questions on the proposed apex committee to decide any future release of militants, ministry expansion or the coordination committee for implementation of the common minimum programme.