New Delhi, Sept 1: Government of India Wednesday expressed its willingness to hold talks with “any group” from the Kashmir Valley wishing to come forward amid indications that it would be soon coming out with a series of measures to address the issue.
“We hope to restart the dialogue process. We will talk to any group, any political party which is willing to talk to us,” Union Home Minister P Chidambaram told reporters while presenting the report card of his ministry for the month of August.
He was replying to questions on whether the Centre would kick-start political process of a dialogue with groups especially the separatists with violence showing signs of decline. The Home Minister made it clear that the Central government was willing to talk to all sections of people in Jammu and Kashmir.
Sources in the Government have also indicated that a high-level meeting was scheduled in the next few days during which the Centre, in consultation with the state Government, will come out with specific measures to address some issues which may bring relief to the people of the state.
This includes relocation of security forces, employment package for militants, who have served their sentences and were unemployed, and a fresh surrender policy.
Chidambaram, in his ministry’s report card, has said the government’s efforts to end the cycle of protests and violence in Kashmir are yet to bear fruit. He, however, expressed the hope that the government would be able to re-start the process of dialogue in the state in near future.
The report card says that Kashmir continued to witness violent protests in the month of August, 2010.
The Prime Minister convened a meeting of all political parties of Jammu and Kashmir on August 10, 2010. “Our efforts to put an end to the cycle of violence are yet to bear fruit,” the report card says.
Earlier, Chidambaram was asked about his statement at the conference of Directors General and Inspectors General of Police that the dialogue would be started in “few days”.
“I can’t give a date. Few days means few days. Government hopes that it will be able to re-start the process of dialogue in the near future,” he said.
Asked to comment on BJP’s policy on Kashmir which has been demanding the scrapping of Article 370 in the Constitution that guarantees special status to the state, Chidambaram said the principal opposition party’s policy on Jammu and Kashmir was well known.
“Government’s policy on the state has been stated in more than one occasion by the Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh) and by me too. There are obviously differences between BJP and the UPA,” he said.
The Home Minister said the UPA government had already declared its Kashmir policy and it would continue to pursue that policy. “We will pursue the policy we have declared and we believe that that policy is a right policy. It will bring in peace and order in Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 1 Sep 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
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