Jammu, Mar 15: Accusing Peoples Democratic Party of `building castles in air’, former minister and National Conference MLA, Dr Mustafa Kamal, Monday countered Muzaffar Hussain Baig’s claim over the historical Mughal Road.
“History stands testimony to the fact that the Mughal road was the dream project of Sher-e-Kashmir Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah, who made serious efforts to start the work,” Dr Kamal said while participating in the budget discussion in the Lower House.
He was referring to Baig’s claims that the project was formulated and started by the then chief minister, Mufti Muhammad Sayeed.
“It was in the ’60s when Sheikh Sahib went to Muzaffarabad to hold deliberations with the authorities there over the construction of the road”, he said adding, “The death of the then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, who was himself very much interested in the construction of the road, came as a set back to the project”.
Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah, he said, made another effort to re-start the project after an accord with former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1974-75. “However, the work could not be started because of unfavourable response of the then Pakistan government”.
Later, when Dr Farooq Abdullah became the chief minister of the state, the ambitious project was again taken up and in 1988 around 35 per cent work on the road was completed, the MLA added.
“It was again the sincere efforts of the chief minister, Omar Abdullah, that the central government agreed to provide 100 per cent funding for the project”, he said while terming the PDP’s claims as a “bundle of lies.”

Lastupdate on : Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:00:00 IST