Bring bill for restoring J&K statehood: Azad to government
(Sourced from PTI)
Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Wednesday asked the Government to bring a bill in Rajya Sabha proposing the restoration of statehood for Jammu and Kashmir. "I appeal to you if Jammu and Kashmir has to progress and if we have to fight our enemies at the borders, we need to take our own people into confidence and give them love," Azad said.
Speaking during the Motion of Thanks to the President's Address, Azad said the government should "bring a bill in the House and statehood be restored" adding that legislative assembly elections must be held after statehood is restored for Jammu and Kashmir.
Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Azad said any measure that upsets the people residing in the Northeast and border areas, including Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, and Punjab, should not be taken. Referring to former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Azad said she taught him that "we cannot fight on multiple fronts with Pakistan and China."
The Congress leader claimed that the people of Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh are not happy as outsiders can now buy land and work there, unlike in the past. He also alleged that the tourism industry in Kashmir was now finished, along with education as schools and colleges have been closed for almost two years, while it also lags behind in key parameters like health.
Arguing against Jammu and Kashmir being converted into Union Territory, he claimed that Kashmir's law and order was a hundred times better when it was a state. There was low militancy and best development works, irrespective of which government was in power.
However, Azad congratulated the Narendra Modi-led government for executing the long-standing demand that the Panchayati raj system be implemented in Jammu and Kashmir. Meanwhile, speaking after him, A Navaneethakrishnan of the AIADMK expressed gratitude to the Prime Minister for enacting the Tamil Nadu Protected Agricultural Development Zone Act, addressing the apprehensions of farmers in the Cauvery delta.
"The Act prohibits all kinds of activities that are harming agriculture in the Cauvery delta," Navaneethakrishnan said, adding that as many as 15 members from both Houses are from the Cauvery delta area. To recall, in 2019, the Centre revoked Article 370 which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated the state into two Union Territories, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
