Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Sept 29: All India Kashmiri Samaj (AIKS) organized a day-long Round Table Conference (RTC) here today on formulation of community’s response to the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35 A by the Govt of India on Aug 5, 2019.
The RTC, chaired by Col Tej K Tikoo (Retd), president All India Kashmiri Samaj, was attended by over 50 invitees belonging to various community organizations, as also many prominent community members spread across the country. Besides the representatives of various community organizations/ prominent community members from NCR, representatives from Jammu, Uttar Pradesh, Baroda, Mumbai and Amritsar also took part in the deliberations.
Almost all participants agreed that the Government of India had taken very bold decisions on Aug 5. They further expressed the view that these are going to demolish the walls that had created psychological barriers between the people of the State and rest of the country. Everyone complimented the Government for doing away with these regressive constitutional provisions, which in any case were purely temporary and transient and should have been done away with long back.
Most of the members spoke about the changes they expected to see at the ground level in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and its effect on the displaced community. A great deal of time was spent in reassessing community’s requirement in the changed context, particularly the demand concerning rehabilitation of KP’s in Kashmir.
Divergent views were expressed on the issue. The other issues that came up for discussion included the Temples and Shrine Bill which Prem Nath Bhatt Memorial Trust is pursuing. Shiban Khaibri of the PNMBT gave a detailed briefing on the subject. PN Goja, who is leading a battery of lawyers in pleading the AIKS PIL in the J&K High Court, gave a detailed update on the case.
Many other issues, including KPs’ IDP status, a commission to inquire into the circumstances of their exodus, compensation for the loss suffered by the community, implementation of Prime Minister’s package in full, etc. too, were discussed.
The community organisations invited were; PK, KSD, JKVM, KECSS, KPS, ASKPC, RIK and PNBMT.
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