Assurances of restoration of statehood at “early opportunity”, no demographic change and release of all political prisoners in “due course” were the takeaways from Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s meeting with a political delegation of the Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party here on Sunday.
Expressing confidence that visible changes will be seen onthe ground in the next few months, the Home Minister also assured thedelegation that the NDA government under Prime Minister NarendraModi will takeall steps for the overall development of Jammu and Kashmir.
The political delegation, which is the first one after theabrogation of special status on August 5 last year by the Centre, had called onthe Prime Minister on Saturday.
Engaging with the delegation on about 40-odd issues raisedby them, the Home Minister emphasised that there is no intention of thegovernment for demographic change in the region and “all such talks haveno basis at all”.
In a similar assurance as given by the Prime Minister to thedelegation, Shah said the government will work with all sections of the societyto realize the hopes of statehood for Jammu and Kashmir at an earlyopportunity, an official statement said.
Shah referred to the Prime Minister’s address to the nationafter the abrogation of Article 370 and said that and even he, himself in hisspeech in LokSabha on August 6, 2019 expressed the same.
The Home Minister said this is also good for India’sinterest, as the region is a border area, the statement said.
He assured the delegation that Jammu and Kashmir will have abetter domicile policy than other states in the country and also said that areasonable economic development policy will be drafted soon after widespreadconsultation.
Shah said his government is open to suggestions and feedbackfrom all political parties and individuals for overall development of Jammu andKashmir.
Allaying the apprehensions of the delegation onrestrictions, Shah said all decisions on relaxations are based on groundrealities and not due to any pressure.
He referred to steps like release of people from detention,restoration of internet, relaxation in curfew and said that “evenpolitical prisoners will be freed in times to come as the main objective of thegovernment is that not a single person should die, be it a common Kashmiri orsecurity personnel”.
Many political leaders were detained after August 5 lastyear when the Centre revoked special status of Jammu and Kashmir and divided itinto union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. He emphasised that there is no discriminationin implementation of central laws in Jammu and Kashmir and interests of allsections will be taken care of.
He said that a land bank had been created in the unionterritory and the government would soon come out with an industrial policy toensure rapid economic development.
He expressed hope that in next four years, Jammu and Kashmirwill have three times more investments than Rs 13,000 crore that it hasreceived in last 70 years.
There is a huge potential and investors are also willing tocome forward. This will also solve the problem of unemployment in the region,he added.
On the issues of reservation, the Home Minister said that acommission will be set up soon and reiterated that no injustice will be done toGujjars, nomads and other communities.
On the issues concerning JK Bank, he assured the delegationof personally looking into the issues.
Shah said that he will also ask the Lieutenant Governor toappoint a senior nodal officer to meet the people twice in a week to addresstheir grievances. He also asked the delegation to provide feedback to the nodalofficers in the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Emerging after the nearly two-hour meeting with the HomeMinister, AltafBukhari, a businessman-turned-politician who led the delegationof the party, said the Home Minister allayed fears of demographic changes inJammu and Kashmir and also assured of early return of statehood.
“Yes, we did discuss about the detention of remainingpolitical leaders and others, and the Home Minister said it is a process and wewill be releasing them very soon,” Bukhari said.
The delegation comprised of party leaders including GhulamHassan Mir, Mohammad Dilawar Mir, Aijaz Ahmad Khan, Rafi Ahmad Mir, MohammadAshraf Mir, ZaffarManhas, Vijay Bakaya, Vikram Malhotra, Manjeet Singh, MumtazAhmad Khan, Javed Hassan Beigh, Usman Majeed, ChoudharyQamarHussain, RajaManzoor, Shoiab Lone, Abdul MajeedPadder, Abdul Rahim Rather, Syed Asghar Ali,JavaidMirchal, Noor Mohammad Sheikh, Yawar Ahmad Mir and Kamal Arora.