KL Report
SRINAGAR
Valley wide shutdown is being observed against the proposed “KP Composite Townships” in Kashmir.
Busines establishments, schools, colleges, are closed while traffic is off the roads though movement of private light vehicles is gong on Srinagar roads.
Pertinently, government of Jammu and Kashmir is ‘identifying’ land for the establishment of composite townships for the return of Kashmiri Pandits who had migrated outside Kashmir valley in early 1990s.
CM Mufti Muhammad Sayeed had, a few day ago in a meeting, had assured Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh that Jammu and Kashmir government will acquire and provide land at the earliest for Kashmiri Pandit “composite townships” in the Valley.
A Press Information Bureau statement had quoted the minutes of the meeting saying that the Union Home Minister had asked the Chief Minister Sayeed to provide land in the State for composite townships for Kashmiri Pandits.
The separatists in valley condemned the move and called for a valley wide shutdown. They said that Kashmiri Pandits are part and parcel of valley’s milieu and should return to their native places instead of separate colonies.
On Friday, protests were held in Srinagar against the proposed move in which many were injured.
More so, reports on Saturday said that the PDP-BJP coalition in state had already identified the land for a township for the Kashmiri migrant Pandits. The report in a valley based newspaper said that PDP had deliberated on the issue with BJP for two months and Kashmiri Pandit leaders too were consulted.
Quoting sources, the report said that the land near Pampore was considered suitable because it is located close to the Srinagar-Jammu highway and the old airport.
“It wasn’t mentioned in the Agenda for Alliance (a guiding framework for governance for PDP-BJP coalition) but there was tacit agreement between the two,” the report reads.
Subsquently, state legislature which was in session when Mufti met Union HM and assured him the establishment of ‘townships’, the opposition pulled up the government, with Congress accusing it of promising New Delhi 500 kanals for the townships. The anger forced CM Mufti to issue a statement in the House that his government had no plans to settle Kashmiri Pandits in separate clusters.
