SHAH ABBAS
SRINAGAR
Assuring Panchayati Raj representatives not to be afraid of militants, union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde directed the state government to provide security to Panches and Sarpanches and to take every step in this direction.
“In the (unified headquarters) meeting, the chief minister Omar Abdullah took the lead in discussing the security to panchs and sarpanchs. I told the state officials to provide security to the representatives at ground level and the state government has been asked to take every step in this direction,” Shinde told reports outside the shrine of Hazratbal “The Sarpanches and Panches have no need to fear.”
Shinde paid his respects at the Hazrtabalmshrine in the morning. He is scheduled to have a visit to Chrar e Sharief before winding up his three day visi to Kashmir and Jammu. He visited Ladakh last week and had a night sojourn in Leh before flying to Punjab.
“I prayed prayed for the peace, progress and prosperity of the whole country,” Shinde said.
At about 6 PM, every one in the civil lines area of the city was taken by surprise when home minister’s cavalcade stopped at Poloview Shopping area. He did some shopping that included a suit for himself. Shinde later went to Jahangir Chowk and bought some fruits there. This is the first ever visit of any home minister to the heart of the city. Even senior ministers in the state cabinet skip such visists.
During the presence of HM in Lalchowk, severe traffic jam was observed and the passer byes were a bit worried by the sudden security bandubast.
The Minister of State for Home Nasir Aslam Wani, Union Home Secretary R. K. Singh, Chief Secretary Madhav Lal, Director General of Police Ashok Prasad, Vice Chairman Waqaf Board M. Y. Qadri and other senior officers of the state administrations were also present.
Home Minister also went round the Dal Lake through Nehru Park basin, Kabutarkhana, Charchinari, Dal interiors and eventually he deboarded at Hazratbal.
Shinde discussed measures to strengthen the fencing on Line of Control(LOC) to ensure zero infiltration at unified headquarters meeting. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, senior officers of army, paramilitary, police and central and state intelligence agencies took part in the meeting. The unified headquarters is the apex security grid in J&K providing coordination and synergy to forces operations. The issue of providing security to Panches and Sarpances was taken up at the meeting. He told reports that whole reviewing the overall security he told authorities that they should ensure zero infiltration, bids for which wil increase before the onset if winter.
