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| CM cautions against politicizing demilitarization | | Announces monitoring of development works on highest level | |
Anantnag July 11, 2007
Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has warned against politicizing the issue of demilitarization, saying it did not concern any particular political party but was directly linked with the overall security situation of the State. He said even as improvement in the situation was a matter of satisfaction any wrong step taken at a time when the State was nearing the destination of peace would take the situation back to 1990.
Addressing a one-day convention of the ruling Congress Party here today, Azad said the issue of demilitarization should not be made a topic of political debate. He said although the incidents of violence and militancy were on decline it was not wise to lower the guard. He said in order to protect the gains achieved in the march on road to peace people and leadership at large should be more cautious and act responsibly. He said his government was trying to bring back the situation to the level of 1987-88 and called for the need to be more vigilant, especially in the wake of the recent developments in Pakistan.
Azad said the strength of the armed forces in the State would be automatically reduced and the troops would go to the barracks once the situation was completely under control. He said the improvement in the situation should not be construed as an end of militancy. He said he firmly believed in the vacation of private houses, government buildings like schools and orchards by the security forces as soon as it was possible, adding that as Chief Minister he had been hammering this point in the meetings of the Unified Command. He said he had been also stressing on payment of rent to the owners of the orchards presently under the occupation of the security forces. He said most of the hotels and school buildings had already been vacated by the security forces during the past two years.
Recalling his meeting with the Defence Secretary, Shekhar Dutt last week, the Chief Minister said he made it clear to him that the security forces should make their own arrangements on war footing and vacate private houses and government installations so that the facilities were used for the purpose these had been constructed. He said he also emphasized on paying in one go all pending rent to the owners of the orchards which had been occupied by the security forces and where these could not be vacated immediately, the payment should be made regularly on monthly basis. He said as Chief Minister he did not want to influence the opinion of Mr. Dutt who had meetings with district administration on demilitarization, but so far as vacation of private and government buildings and payment of rent to orchard owners was concerned he made his views known very clearly. He highlighted the role of the security forces in brining about improvement in the situation.
Referring to the present development scenario in J&K, Azad said his government had taken up development projects across the State for which the central government had made funds generously available. He said for the first time in the history of the State, the problem was not the shortage of funds but how to utilize these in time. He said his government is planning a mechanism to ensure speedy implementation and timely completion of development projects so that their benefits would accrue to general public in the right earnest. He said all infrastructure related works for which the central government had provided money would be monitored at the highest level and non-performing officials put to task. He said teams of senior officers would keep a constant vigil on these works and keep on reviewing and monitoring the projects. He said the need to put this system in place was felt in view of the urgency for completion of infrastructure in sectors like roads, urban development, power, health, education and tourism.
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