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| CM shares J&K strategies with British Lord | | | Early Times Reporter
Srinagar|Sep 8- Lord Alderdice, former Speaker, Northern Ireland Assembly and Member Independent Monitoring Commission, Northern Ireland , currently on a visit of the Valley, called on Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad here this morning. He was accompanied by Radha Kumar of Jamia Millia and Delhi Policy Group.
The Lord evinced interest in the dialogue process and development initiatives taken by the government in Jammu & Kashmir. He informed the Chief Minister that he had worked for 11 years as leader of a political party in Ireland engaged in dialogue which ultimately resulted in peace there.
Azad told the visiting Parliamentarian that the Central government in conjecture with the State government was pursuing a three pronged strategy to address the problem. He said on one level the process of reconciliation and dialogue had been initiated with Pakistan which was on the right track but for the internal situation in the neighbouring country, leading to a temporary set back to the process. He said so far as India was concerned everything was in line including visit of Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister to Pakistan. However, he said following the situation in the aftermath of sacking of the Chief Justice and the resultant political uncertainty in Pakistan, the dialogue process between the two countries had suffered a setback. He hoped that the situation there would soon be normal to let the two neighbours pick up threads from where these had been left before March this year, adding that Pakistan's cooperation was very crucial for lasting peace in the region.
The Chief Minister informed Lord Alderdice that alongside with opening the channel of peace and reconciliation with Pakistan, the government had started dialogue with political parties and groups in Jammu & Kashmir. He said Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh himself chaired three Roundtable Conferences in which all political shades of the State were represented. He said the Prime Minister also constituted 5 Working Groups to address various issues relating to good governance, centre-state relations, travel across LoC and people to people contact, balanced economic development within the State etc. He said the talks were also started with separatist leadership in J&K to address the problem.
On being asked about development measures taken by the government in Jammu & Kashmir, the Chief Minister said that for the first time in post- independence history of the State, political and development issues were being simultaneously addressed. He said side by side with initiating dialogue process, the Prime Minister's Reconstruction Programme was launched to transform the economic profile of the State. He said thousands of crores of rupees worth development projects had been initiated by Government of India in the state especially in power, road, health, drinking water and education sectors.
On human rights situation, Azad told the British MP that there was considerable improvement. He said the government had made it clear to its security agencies that human rights violations were not acceptable and that any violation would be severely dealt with according to the law. He said whenever any incident was reported the government took cognizance and proceeded against the accused. He cited the instance of Ganderbal fake encounter and said that the responsible police officials including a Senior Superintendent of Police were behind the bars with a case of murder registered against them. He said Army had also court-martialled and dismissed from service several erring soldiers. He said during the current year no custodial disappearance had taken place in the State.
Lord Alderdice appreciated the three-pronged strategy adopted by the government to address the Kashmir problem and said that his experience showed that although time consuming, there was no alternative to dialogue for finding solution to a problem. He said he had visited several places where there had been turmoil to explore common things and how the problems could be resolved. He said the purpose of his visit to the Valley was in the same backdrop.
On his maiden visit to Kashmir, the British MP described the land as extremely beautiful and its people very hospitable and friendly. He said he was very well looked after during his stay here.
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