Jammu, Sept 6: Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah Monday said the Centre should be given time to examine the points suggested by separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani for bringing about peace in the Valley.
“Geelani has put forward some points. We should give time to the Centre to examine them and provide its response,” Omar told reporters in reply to a question on the Eid deadline set by the Hurriyat chairman for implementation of his “peace proposal.”
The chief minister, who inaugurated a grid station in Kotbalwal area on the outskirts of Jammu city, said “I hope that Centre shall give such a response that will better situation in Kashmir.”
Reacting sharply to a question about whether Geelani had been a factor in the over two-month-long Kashmir crisis, Omar said, “Every factor is important. There is no party leader in J&K who can claim to be the sole representative of Jammu and Kashmir or Kashmir valley”.
He said it was important that every person with a representative character, came forward and helped resolve the issue. Denying that he had spoken in favour of the removal of the army from Jammu and Kashmir, he said he had only suggested that it should be thought over.
“We have two options over it. One, to amend the stringent sections of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). They should be made soft. The second option is to remove AFSPA in a phased manner from areas where there is near zero militancy and no role of the Army”, he said adding, talks were on with the Centre in that direction.
An exercise is being undertaken in Jammu and Kashmir to identify districts with near zero militancy, he said.
However, the chief minister refused to comment on northern command chief Lieutenant General BS Jaswal strongly advocating continuation of AFSPA.
To a question about the solution to the Kashmir issue, Omar said, “It lay in dialogue. Centre has repeatedly gone on record inside and outside Parliament saying there should be continuity of dialogue to solve the problem”.
“The solution to Kashmir problem should be unique because the accession of J&K with the rest of the country took place in unique circumstances”, he said, adding that it should be acceptable to people of all the three regions of the state.
Regretting the loss of life in Kashmir during past three months, Omar said that nobody has expected that situation will turn worse. “Past three months have been the worst and most challenging in my 40 year of life. A difficult time to deal with”, he said.
Without naming Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Minister said that since the Congress-National Conference (NC) government took over the reigns of the state, conspiracies are being hatched to create problems in its way. “Deliberate attempts are being made to undermine our government and peaceful atmosphere of the state is being vitiated”, he alleged.
While lauding the role of the people of Jammu for maintaining communal harmony despite provocations, Omar said that people of Jammu have always acted intelligently and thwarted the attempts of the vested interests.
“First Hindus were provoked by spreading rumour that temple has been burnt in Islamabad, then some people threw bottles on mosque to provoke both the communities, when these attempts failed they then targeted Sikhs, but these attempts were defeated by the people”, CM said.
On the Panchyat and Corporation elections, Omar asked the people to gear up for the polls to restore democracy at grass root level.
STUDENTS SERVE WATER TO OFFICERS, POLITICIANS
While Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Health Minister Sham Lal Sharma and other senior leaders were delivering  high pitched speeches at Kot Balwal Higher Secondary School, it was the students who were being used as ‘waiters’ by the school administration to serve water to senior civil and police officials and politicians.
The function which was organised by the local party workers of the National Conference and Congress on the inauguration of 132 KV Burn-Siot-Kalakote transmission line, in total disregard to the sanctity of the educational institution with no class work or other studies during the entire day. Instead the students of the school were put on the job of serving water and cold drinks to the invitees, including politicians, legislators, civil and police officers.
Even some teachers were sitting in the audiences to hear the speeches being delivered by the political leaders. “What could we do as the class work was disrupted due to the security measures, we decided to be part of the audiences”, said a teacher.
“We were asked by the principal to serve water and was told yesterday that rally will be organised here”, said Ankush, a 9th class student. Most of the students were confined by the security agencies within their class rooms during the rally.
Other leaders who were present on the occasion, included Minister for Higher Education, Abdul Gani Malik, Minister of State for Power, Shabir Ahmad Khan and Vice Chairman, Kissan Board, Rashpal Singh.
“Police has asked us to remain in classrooms till the rally concludes”, said another student Ravi Rishi.
When principal of the school Vinod Kumar was asked about this he said, “We have conducted all the classes and there was no disruption of the class work”.
Asked about the students serving water to senior police and civil officials, which include Divisional Commissioner Pawan Kotwal, IG Ashok Gupta, DIG-Jammu-Kathua range Farooq Khan and Deputy Commissioner Jammu Manoj Dwivedi “They were just rendering helping hand and there was no direction to them to serve the water in the rally”, principal said.
During his visit to Balwal Omar also inaugurated Rs. 2 crore Receiving Station and 20 Kilometers power transmission line at Budhal. The facility will benefit more than 20 hilly and backward villages of Budhal in Rajouri district.

Lastupdate on : Mon, 6 Sep 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 6 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT
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