news details |
|
|
| CM promises ‘everything’ to restore calm | | Calls all party meet, says no construction till issue resolved | | Early Times Reporter
Jammu | June 25
In a delayed response to the violent situation which has already taken toll of three lives and injured more than 150 people during last three days, the Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad today attempted to quell the situation promising that no construction shall be allowed on the controversial piece of land till the crisis was resolved through an all party meeting.
Making an elaborate account of land transfer controversy, the background of Amarnath Yatra and dispelling fears on the alleged ecological threat, the Chief Ministers said that whole controversy and the protests arising out of it were completely politically motivated. Without naming coalition partner Peoples Democratic Party, the Chief Minister alleged that some people with vested interests were seeking electoral gains out of this controversy. He appealed all people maintain calm and uphold the secular ethos of Jammu and Kashmir.
Addressing a press conference in Srinagar this afternoon, the Chief Minister appealed people to observe calm and not fall prey to the propaganda of elements out to play politics and disrupt peace on a sensitive issue. He asked political parties not to make a religious issue an election plank or take it to the streets. He expressed anguish over the loss of human life and injuries to people. He said the matter could be debated in the cabinet or through seminars and symposia rather than through violence on roads. He said umpteen lives had been lost during the past 60 years by exploiting people’s sentiments and at a time when right kind of atmosphere had been created for economic development the State could ill afford more violence and bloodshed. He asserted that no political party or group would be allowed to vitiate the atmosphere of peace and sought the cooperation of people and the media in maintaining peace and order.
The Chief Minister said that he did not want to take a decision on this sensitive matter on political or electoral considerations. He said the sentiments of the people were attached with the matter. He said a number of suggestions had been received and the all party meeting would take everything into consideration and evolve a consensus. He said the consensus arrived should remove, not erect, walls between communities.
The Chief Minister said that ever since the SASB came into being no permanent construction had been made by it on the shrine route. He said he had sent a team to see if permanent constructions had been raised. He said the SASB had only raised temporary pre-fabricated structures.
Citing the two shining examples of communal harmony and amity witnessed in the State during the partition of India and the onset of militancy, the Chief Minister said that Kashmir in 1947 refused to be carried away by communal frenzy engulfing the sub-continent and the majority community protected the minority community making Mahatma Gandhi to say his famous words that in complete darkness he saw a ray of light only in Kashmir. He said similarly when lakhs of people fled to Jammu from Kashmir and other parts of the Jammu division, the local people welcomed them with open arms. He said the State was known world over for communal amity and this spirit had to be maintained at any cost.
On this occasion, a factual note on the diversion of forest land to SASB was distributed among the media persons and the Chief Minister urged the media to go through it, adding the public had the right to know the entire background. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
