Kashmir Impulse Desk
Srinagar, Sep 16
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday advised leaders in Ladakh not to rely on verbal assurances from India’s federal government over constitutional safeguards for land and jobs.
Abdullah said Jammu and Kashmir had itself received verbal assurances on the restoration of statehood that had yet to be fulfilled.
“Do not rely on any verbal assurances from the central government unless they provide those in writing and officially signed,” Abdullah told reporters in Pulwama district.
He said the concerns of Ladakh were separate from those of Jammu and Kashmir but offered the advice as a “friend and well-wisher”.
“We too were given verbal assurances that statehood would be restored immediately after the Assembly election. Almost two years have passed since, and that promise has not materialised,” he said.
Abdullah was speaking during a visit to Pulwama to review development projects.
He said Pulwama was likely to rank among the top five of Jammu and Kashmir’s 20 districts in terms of execution of development projects and utilisation of allocated funds.
He asked district officials to accelerate spending during the remaining two to three months of the current working season and said additional funds could be arranged if existing allocations were fully utilised.
Abdullah said projects worth about Rs 1 billion had either been inaugurated or had their foundation stones laid in Pulwama on Wednesday.
The projects included roads, schools, hospital works, bridges and a dairy-processing village, he said.
Asked about a strike by National Health Mission employees, Abdullah said protesting was a democratic right but his government would discuss their demands only after the agitation ended.
“My earnest request to them would be to kindly choose the path of dialogue,” he said.
Abdullah declined to respond to Sharma’s criticism of the duration of the Assembly session, saying he would respond to one statement from the opposition leader each month.
