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| PDP caught napping, Omar meets Vohra | | Agitated Baig says NC hijacked his party’s agenda | | Early Times Reporter
Jammu | June 26
The agitated Peoples Democratic Party was today caught napping when the Opposition National Conference virtually hijacked its agenda and trooped to the Raj Bhawan to have a word with Governor NN Vohra on his first day in office.
The PDP had been championing the ‘political agitation’ against transfer of forest land to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board which led to wide spread protests and demonstrations across Kashmir Valley. Before that the PDP could confer with Governor, who is also chairman of the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board, on the issue, a 16-member delegation of National Conference leaders led by its president Omar Abdullah took the opportunity to become the first to reach Srinagar Raj Bhawan this morning.
This had the PDP exasperated to the extent that the Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussain Baig publicly lashed out against the National Conference for hijacking its agenda. Baig said we had long been waiting for the new Governor to take over so as resolve crisis with consultations but the National Conference had “hijacked our agenda”.
Meanwhile, the NC delegation led by Omar Abdullah which met Vohra this morning sought surrender of the forest land allotted to the Amarnath shrine board in a bid to defuse tension in the state.
Omar claimed that Vohra had agreed to consider their demand. "The governor has agreed to consider our demand. He has started consultations and will meet Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad when he returns to Srinagar," Abdullah told reporters in Srinagar.
The NC president said his party will not participate in the proposed all-party meeting convened by Azad on the issue yesterday.
"Had the chief minister called us before the decision was taken (on diversion of the land to SASB)? Why did he not convene the all-party meeting before and seek our views on the issue?" Abdullah asked.
He said that surrender of the land by the board is "the only solution which can cool down passions in the state."
Describing the scenario as "critical", he said "It is not out of place to mention that the situation is worst in the last fifteen years."
He said the matter has surcharged the atmosphere and claimed it had become a "Hindu-Muslim" issue between the two regions (Kashmir and Jammu).
He said if the NC is voted into power, it will "change the law under which the formation of the shrine board took place in 2000." "We will take a relook at the legislation and curtail its activities." |
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