3 days Ago
Union home minister Amit Shah late on Sunday chaired an over two-hour meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators in Jammu and asked them to counter the ruling National Conference (NC) on issues such as revocation of the region’s semi-autonomous status in 2019 and the passage of the Waqf (Amendment) Act. BJP leader Sunil Sharma, who is the Leader of Opposition in the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) assembly, said Shah guided the party legislators on countering the NC for raking up the nullification of Constitution’s Article 370, which gave the region the semi-autonomous status, statehood, and Waqf law to confuse the people. Sharma said Shah sought feedback from the legislators on drug trafficking and the security scenario and asked the lawmakers to become the people’s voice and disseminate information about the BJP-led Union government’s schemes and what it has done in the last decade compared to the previous 70 years.
BJP lawmaker Surjit Singh Salathia said it was Shah’s introductory meeting with the lawmakers. BJP’s all 28 lawmakers in the 90-member J&K assembly are from the Jammu region. Shah arrived in Jammu on Sunday evening for a three-day visit to J&K amid a spike in terror activities in the region.
It is Shah’s first visit to J&K since chief minister Omar Abdullah in October formed the first elected government in the region since 2018. Shah, who was scheduled to review the security scenario and developmental programmes, will on Monday visit a Border Security Force (BSF) outpost along the India-Pakistan border in Kathua. Top security officials were expected to brief Shah about the anti-terror operations and measures to check infiltration of terrorists from Pakistan.
“There shall be special emphasis on the 200 km long IB [international border],” said an official. On Monday afternoon, Shah was due to meet the family members of the Jammu and Kashmir Police personnel killed in the line of duty and give them job letters. Shah will on Tuesday review development projects in Srinagar and hold a security review before returning to New Delhi.
He was also likely to meet Abdullah against the backdrop of disquiet over lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha’s move to transfer 48 J&K administrative service officers. The transfers prompted Abdullah to convene a meeting of the ruling alliance. The government has expressed concerns over Sinha’s meddling in its affairs.
Sinha maintained he has the authority to order transfers as per with J&K Reorganisation Act enacted in 2019 when J&K was stripped of its statehood and divided into two Union territories..
