Srinagar, July 21: The National Conference on the commencement of Holy month of Ramadan today reiterated its stand by appealing the centre to restore autonomy and revoke Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) as a goodwill gesture to address the mistrust while inviting all the shades of thoughts to converge on a common platform to ensure that such steps are given impetus
 Appealing the centre to restore autonomy the NC spokesman Tanvir Sadiq said that our elected government had sent a well thought out, thoroughly studied report passed by both the houses of the legislature to the Central Government which recommended autonomy for the state, the essence of which is very similar to Justice Sagheer Group report which was formed by the Prime Minister.
 “There is absolutely no doubt that our autonomy has been unconstitutionally eroded from time to time and that center has for all practical purposes stacked away that report in cold storage” said the spokesman “Even then we have no doubt in the sincerity of the GOI but the mistrust among the people has to be addressed and the only way to do so is to honor the instrument of accession and restore autonomy”, said Tanvir “any more delay might be disastrous” he added
 “For a lasting solution, we need convergence of views and consensus on a possible solution like Autonomy otherwise everybody will be toeing their own way,” he added.
 Reiterating the commitment of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to revoke AFSPA the spokesman said that the party stands committed to ensure that AFSPA is revoked and added that militancy-related incidents have gone down.
 The Holy month of Ramadan has started and what better time could it be for the centre as a goodwill gesture to withdraw AFSPA from areas not affected by militancy anymore,” said Tanvir.
 “Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has all along been saying that the implementation of AFSPA should not be equated with the law and order situation” said Tanvir adding “The Act was not implemented in the state to meet the law and order situation but to deal with the militancy and one can easily figure out that militancy has declined over the years.”
 “The Army has done its job but now is the time to address a genuine demand like AFSPA which has mass support,” he said
 “We have close to around a million odd tourists who visited Kashmir for vacations till now and around half a million Yatris visited Amarnath Shrine. I have yet to come across any tourist who would visit a place which is not safe,” Tanvir added.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 21 Jul 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 21 Jul 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 22 Jul 2012 00:00:00 IST