Jammu, July 7: Absolving Jama’at-e-Islami (JeI) from having imposed any dress code on tourists in Kashmir, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Saturday blamed the national media for blowing the issue out of proportion and distorting the facts “as a dismaying tactics to gain TRP (Television Rating Point)”.
“They (JeI) have not said anything like that. They have already made it clear. It is the media that is playing up the issue unnecessarily, only to gain TRP. It does not have any effect on the ground,” Omar told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.
Pertinently, Jama’at-e-Islami, in a clarification issued Friday had also blamed the New Delhi-based electronic and print media for what it called “misconstruing” its statement on the dress code.
“The New Delhi-based electronic and print media misconstrued our statement. Neither had it contained any dictate nor any edict regarding any dress code for tourists but just an appeal to them to respect the local ethos,” a statement issued here by Jama’at spokesman advocate Zahid Ali had said.
Referring to Indo-Pak talks, Omar said the External Affairs Minister SM Krishna’s visit to Islamabad will spur an India-Pakistan dialogue but “talks for the sake of talks will yield nothing” it should be result oriented.
He also hoped that the proposed Indo-Pak talks in September will resolve some of the vexed issues between the two neighboring countries. “Talks should continue. There is no solution possible without talks. But if the talks are held just for the sake of talks, there is no fun. There are several outstanding issues (between India and Pakistan).There should be results now”, he said.
He suggested that the two countries should work on making visa regime easy consider issuance of long term visas. “Sir Creek and Siachen issues can be resolved. Cross-LoC trade can be improved,” he suggested.
Earlier, the Chief Minister reviewed the development projects in Jammu region at a high level meeting chaired by him. The Chief Minister received detailed appraisal of measures underway to mitigate the difficulties of people and ensure prompt service delivery in various public service sectors.
Deputy Chief Minister, Tara Chand, Minister for Industries, SS Slathia, Minister for Health, Sham Lal Sharma, Minister for CAPD, Qamar Ali Akhoon, Minister for Medical Education, RS Chib, Minister of State for Cooperatives, Manohar Lal, Minister of State for Power, Shabir Ahmad Khan, Political Advisor to the Chief Minister, Devender Singh Rana, various Administrative Secretaries, Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Pradeep Gupta and other senior officers were present in the meeting.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 7 Jul 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 7 Jul 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 8 Jul 2012 00:00:00 IST