Early Times Report
Jammu, Dec 5: Former J&K Chief Minister and National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah on Wednesday said that then Union Home Minister L.K Advani had suggested handing over of J&K Bank to the Centre. "There was a design to take over the bank in the past too. When I was Chief Minister, Mr. Advani along with deputy chairman planning commission suggested the bank was not doing good and should be taken over. Though the bank was doing well," said Dr. Abdullah on the sidelines of 36th annual day of Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences in Srinagar. The statement assumes significance in the backdrop of recent decision by the State Administrative Council (SAC), headed by Governor Satya Pal Malik, to declare the bank as a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU), evoking sharp reactions from the regional parties and the civil society. "I fervidly trounced those efforts during my tenure as chief minister and we will continue to protect it. Probably, during the current Governor's rule, the Centre thought it will succeed. The autonomy of the bank should not be fiddled with," said Dr. Abdullah. |
