Jammu, June 21: The Cabinet Sub-Committee (CSC), constituted by State Government to review recommendations of Justice Sagheer Ahmed Working Group on State-Centre relations, has preferred silence on autonomy in its interim report.
 Sources informed Greater Kashmir that the CSC headed by Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather has submitted the interim report of 15 pages to State Government but due to lack of consensus among the members on some issues, including greater autonomy to the State, the final report is still awaited.
 They said that while the members, among other things, agreed on the recommendation of making Article 370 as permanent feature in Indian Constitution, the members failed to reach a consensus on the autonomy issue.
 Sources claimed that the Committee has discussed 16 points referred in the recommendations of the Working Group and has presented its report based on the consensus evolved among the members.
 “The autonomy issue has not been touched as the members from National Conference and Congress are polls apart on this subject”, a member of the Committee told Greater Kashmir.
 “As the members of CSC failed to develop consensus over the most sensitive recommendations of Justice Sagheer, it has decided to discuss the left out issues in next meeting,” he added.
 The recommendation of greater autonomy goes well with National Conference, but Congress insists on finding the solution to the problem within the Indira-Sheikh Accord of 1975 with a special focus on further strengthening Jammu Kashmir’s relation with India.
 The vital issue of greater autonomy, sources said, has become a major point of discord between the coalition partners. They further said that the 15-page interim report would be sent to Government of India after it is discussed and approved by the State Cabinet.
 Justice Sagheer-headed Working Group deliberated on matters relating to the special status of the border state within the Indian Union, methods of strengthening democracy, secularism and the rule of law in the State. The report had suggested decentralization of powers to strengthen democracy in the State and favoured examination of the question of autonomy in the light of various formulas.
 The State Government constituted a Cabinet Sub-Committee early last year to review the recommendations and give suggestions on the implementation of the same.
 However, in the backdrop of open differences among the members on the issue of autonomy, the term of the CSC was extended for sixth time in March 2012.
 Earlier, the Committee had discussed the recommendations in its meetings held on January 28, 2011, June 1, 2011, August 8, 2011, December 27, 2011, February 17, 2012, and March 27, 2012, but during all these meeting consensus eluded the members.

Lastupdate on : Thu, 21 Jun 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 21 Jun 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 22 Jun 2012 00:00:00 IST