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| ‘Amity in coalition, peace is priority’ | | CM confident of quiet diplomacy bearing results | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Nov 9: Rejecting the idea of dissolving assembly to make way for peace process as vague, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today expressed confidence in the dialogue initiative of the central government and the positive from the separatist spectrum.
Omar told a press conference on reopening of the civil secretariat here this morning that his government wants the dialogue successful and keeping it out of the glare of cameras is an essential part of the exercise. He was commenting on Home Minister P Chidambram’s jargon of quiet diplomacy with separatists and others.
Earlier the Chief Minister inspected a guard of honour and took salute on the re-opening of civil secretariat in the winter capital. It was an atmosphere of enthusiasm inside the secretariat premises while a thick security jacket had been thrown around the complex which was nearly enveloped by the barbed wires.
Omar said that quite diplomacy keeps the focus on settling issues without media hype and proves prudent to carry forward the dialogue in right direction. “The fact is that you can move ahead in the dialogue process easily without creating media hype” he explained.
In reply to another question, Omar said though the situation in Pakistan is the country’s internal matter, yet the neighbours also feel concerned for the disturbing situation across the border. “The instability in Pakistan affects the country, particularly Jammu and Kashmir”, he added.
Answering another question, the Chief Minister said that the NC-Congress coalition government is working in close coordination and amity. “The last ten months performance of the government vindicates the fact that there has never been any dispute in decision making by the Cabinet. We are carrying forward the development agenda together to ensure speedy progress and development of the State”, he said maintaining that the focus of coalition government is on the cause and concern of people instead of party or personal interests.
Omar said that the priority concern of the government at present is to ensure the expenditures on works and complete the schemes on time to reap the benefits of Rs. 5500 crore annual plan granted by the Government of India besides ensuring spending of Rs. 1200 crore under Prime Minister’s Reconstruction Programme (PMRP). He said we are also concerned about speeding up the works on power projects under execution in the State under PMRP.
The Chief Minister said that high quality macamadization of roads in Jammu and Srinagar cities has been initiated this year and the process would be carried to the towns to upgrade roads making them more traffic worthy. He said government has also initiated actions to improve other sectors and upgrade the health, education, PHE and power facilities in the State. “We want people to judge us by the work done”, he said adding that instead of making announcements government believes in taking actions to achieve the goals.
In reply to a question pertaining to the SRTC employees strike, Mr. Omar said that government is willing to provide every help to restructure the Corporation making it a viable and profitable venture. “We have already made it clear that government will provide the funds for the release of salary to the Corporation employees but government is not in a position to upgrade the salaries of Corporation employees to the level of 6th pay commission as the Corporation is running on losses”, he added. “How is it possible for a government to enhance the salaries of Corporation employees when the Corporation is completely in red”, he asked and said that government is keen to improve the functioning of the Corporation making it profit worthy. “However, Corporation employees have also to understand the situation and cooperate in the efforts of the government. We have to meet somewhere in midway to resolve the issue”, he said.
The members of Council of Ministers, Advisors to the Chief Minister, Chief Secretary, Director General of Police, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, President and General Secretary of Civil Secretariat Employees Union were also present in the press conference.
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