New Delhi, June 28:Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday sought to increase the duration of the President’s rule in Jammu and Kashmir for another six months.
Speaking in the Lok Sabha, he said the Election Commission had decided to hold election in the state around the year-end–sometime after October.He said this is not the first time the state had been under the President’s or Governor’s rule. However, this is the first time serious attempts had been made to uproot terrorism besides ensuring development while empowering panchayats. Vote shares had increased without any incidents of violence in the election, he said.
Shah said that in the past the Jammu and Ladakh regions were treated with indifference, which the Modi government had changed. “For us, each and every life in the state is valuable and under the Modi government around 15,000 bunkers have been created.”
“We are committed to establishing democracy and peace in the state. It is the first priority of the government along with removing militancy from the roots,” he assured the House while moving the resolution.
He also moved a Bill for providing reservation to people living along the International Border (IB). “This reservation is not to please anyone but the members should realise the difficulties the villagers living on the IB go through,” he said.
Around 3.5 lakh people living along the IB in Jammu and Kashmir would benefit from reservation in direct recruitment, promotion and admission in professional courses on par with those living along the Actual Line of Control (ALoC), as per the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2019.
The legislation aims to replace the ordinance to give reservation benefits for education, jobs and promotion to the scheduled castes and tribes, and to the economically weaker sections. It seeks to provide relief to people living within 10 km of the IB in Jammu on par with people living along the Line of Control in Kashmir.
Once passed by Parliament, it would amend the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Act, 2004, to bring people residing in areas adjoining the IB within the ambit of reservation, on par with those living in areas adjoining the ALoC.
This has been a long-pending demand of the people along the IB.
Owing to continuous cross-border tensions, people living along the IB suffered from socio-economic and educational backwardness. Shelling from across the border often compelled residents to move to safer places, which adversely affected their education as schools and colleges remained closed for long periods, Shah said.
Cong objects to delay in poll, extension of President’s rule
Opposing the resolution, Congress’s Manish Tewari said there was no need to increase the tenure of President’s rule in J&K.
Tewari, speaking of the various steps taken by the consecutive Congress governments to ensure democratic practices in the state, held the “ideologically incompatible alliance of the BJP and the PDP for deterioration of the situation in the state that had been put on the path of normalcy by the Manmohan Singh government”.
“Today if the situation has reached the point where President’s rule is being extended, it is because of the BJP and the PDP,” Tewari said. “You can win the fight against terrorism only if people are with you,” he said citing the case of Punjab where there has been no major incident after 1995.
“An elected government will only help the situation in J&K. If the Lok Sabha elections could be held peacefully, why not the Assembly elections,” he asked, accusing the BJP of increasing the sense of alienation in the state.
Tewari said his party had no objection to the spirit of the reservation bill, only that it should have been the responsibility of the state Assembly.
