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| Azad hits Mufti on demilitarisation | | Schools, orchards may be freed of troops soon: CM | |
Jammu, July 11: After a brief lull, the Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad today took the partner cum rival leader and predecessor Mufti Mohammad Sayeed heads on as he warned on the consequences of demilitarisation campaign.
Without naming Mufti, Azad said, "those who are playing the demilitarisation politics were actually playing with the life and security of the people at large". He made these pointed references at a convention of his Congress party in Anantnag today.
Meanwhile, Azad indicated that troops can be relocated from the government buildings like schools and hospitals and private estates like orchards. He, however, made it clear moving troops out of the schools and orchards are merely a relocation of positions and not downsizing as the situation does not warrant that.
"I have been making this point quite vociferously in the meetings of Unified Headquarters and also suggested to the visiting Defence Secretary Shekhar Dutt that schools and orchards should be freed of the troops' presence", said the Chief Minister. He further added that the security forces have been asked to make alternate arrangements for their accommodation so that these public places can be vacated at the earliest.
The Chief Minister said he made it clear to the Defence Secretary 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 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.
To convince his predecessor Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and other supporters of demilitarisation, the Chief Minister drawn their attention to the recent developments in Pakistan and said that graph of violence can go up any time.
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.
The Chief Minister pointed out that 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.
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