Delimitation first, Assembly election next: Inside Story of All Party Delhi Meeting

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Ziraat Times
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Srinagar: The all-party meeting on Jammu and Kashmir hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi today has ended.
Sources privy to the discussions at the three and a half hour long meeting told Ziraat Times that most of the focus of the meeting was on receiving feedback from the attending leaders about the way ahead and the future of Jammu & Kashmir.
While the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made the Centre’s position clear in that the delimitation exercise would need to be completed first before the conduct of the elections to the State Assembly, there have been no assurances on timeframe or the sequence of the measures towards the restoration of J&K’s statehood, sources close to the key members of the PAGD leaders attending the meeting told Ziraat Times.

The Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration is likely to issue a statement on the discussions held at the all-party meeting on J&K with the prime minister, sources in the Alliance told ZiraatTimes.

During the meeting, National Conference, PDP and the CPI-M raised the issue of Article 370 and Article 35A. However, no discussion was held on this as the other party said that the matter was Sub judice before the Supreme Court.

“Considerable time was given to the leaders to express their views. Interestingly, the government also made a presentation on the development activities undertaken in J&K post August 5 period. However, the PAGD leaders mostly did not provide any feedback to that considering most of the activities presented were of routine development narure”, sources said.

The Congress party raised five demands during the all-party meeting on Jammu and Kashmir. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, senior Congress leader and former J&K Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said the party has raised five demands to the government. These were:

1) Statehood for Jammu and Kashmir should be restored at the earliest. “The prime minister and the home minister had promised in Parliament to restore J&K’s statehood at the appropriate time. We told the government that now is the favourable situation for it,” Azad said.

2) The Congress also demanded the government to hold assembly elections in J&K at the earliest.
3) Ghulam Nabi Azad said the Congress party also demanded that efforts must be made to ensure return of Kashmiri Pandits and their rehabilitation. “This is our moral responsibility,” Azad said.

4) The fourth demand that the Congress raised was that the government should release all social and political prisoners who were arrested/detained on or around August 5, 2019 when Article 370 was abrogated.

5) Besides this, the Congress demanded the government to provide guarantee protection of domiciles on land rights and jobs in J&K.

Govt is committed to ensure J&K’s all-round development: Home Minister Amit Shah said in a tweet shirt while ago.

“We are committed to ensure all round development of J&K. The future of Jammu and Kashmir was discussed and the delimitation exercise and peaceful elections are important milestones in restoring statehood as promised in Parliament,” Union Home Minister Amit Shah tweeted.

This is a developing story. It will be updated as and when more credible information is available.

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