Srinagar, Nov 10: Even after a lapse of 45 days, the state government is yet to act on the Centre’s advisory on reviewing the areas declared disturbed under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act.
The two high powered committees constituted by the state government on September 29 as a follow-up to the centre’s direction, are yet to meet over the issue.
After Cabinet Committee on Security announced the eight-point package for Jammu and Kashmir, that included review of areas declared disturbed, two committees, one each for Kashmir and Jammu, were constituted for the purpose during a unified headquarters meeting in Srinagar September 29.
The parallel committees comprising of DGP, GOC 15 Corps, principal secretary Home, Special DG CRPF (special invitee), with GOC 16 corps representing Army in panel of Jammu division, are yet to meet to deliberate over the issue of areas declared disturbed and submit recommendations, sources told Greater Kashmir.
Senior officials in the state administration said that there has been no follow-up action on the centre’s directive on reviewing the areas declared disturbed under AFSPA, except constitution of the twin committees.
After the CCS failed to take a decision on lifting of AFSPA from proposed three districts each in Jammu and Kashmir regions, due to strong opposition by defence ministry and BJP, the centre passed the buck to the state asking it to review the areas declared disturbed. The state government, accordingly, constituted two panels for the purpose.
“The committees will carry out a detailed review and submit their recommendations to the apex committee constituted under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister,” the state government had announced.
After enacting of Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act in 1990, the state government issued two notifications in 1990 and 2001 to declare valley and Jammu provinces as disturbed areas.
The removal of disturbed area tag would make AFPSA redundant, as it is mandatory for an area to be declared disturbed to bring it under the purview of AFSPA.
When contacted, Principal Secretary Home BR Sharma said that they have sought convenience of the members for the meeting. “We will finalize the dates within one or two days,” he said.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 10 Nov 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 10 Nov 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 11 Nov 2010 00:00:00 IST