Neeraj Rohmetra
JAMMU, Sept 7: Putting up a united face on the issue of Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), Kargil, all 11 Ministers of the Congress belonging to both the factions met in Srinagar today for one and a half hours under the leadership of PCC (I) chief Prof Saif-ud-Din Soz and decided to take their fight to logical conclusion.
The meeting of all 11 Congress Ministers held at the residence of Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand unanimously decided to wait for response of the National Conference on their demand for rescinding the Government order nominating four NC leaders as Councilors to LAHDC Kargil before deciding next course of action.
Party insiders told the Excelsior that the Congress leadership had yesterday summoned four party Ministers, who were away in New Delhi and Jammu to Srinagar to join today’s meeting to put up a united show and put pressure on its Alliance partners-the National Conference to immediately withdraw the nomination order, which had tilted majority in LAHDC Kargil in favour of the NC.
The meeting started at the residence of Tara Chand at 1.30 pm and lasted one and a half hours after all 4 Ministers reached Srinagar from New Delhi and Jammu .
This was for the second consecutive day that the Congress Ministers met at Tara Chand’s residence under the chairmanship of Prof Soz to discuss their strategy vis-à-vis LAHDC Kargil.
The Congress leaders decided that the party would also stress for another meeting of the Co-ordination Committee to resolve the issue arising out of four nominations to the LAHDC Kargil by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on September 5.
“We will seek the Co-ordination Committee meeting at the earliest to sort out the issue amicably and immediately as the nominations have been made without consulting us notwithstanding that we are major coalition partner in the Government,” the Congress Ministers regretted.
It may be mentioned here that yesterday also the NC-Congress Co-ordination Committee had met in Srinagar under the chairmanship of Prof Soz to sort out the issue arising out of the nominations. The meeting had remained inconclusive with National Conference members defending decision of the Chief Minister on the ground that the Congress had got its four members nominated to LAHDC Leh with the assurance that the NC can nominated its four members to LAHDC Kargil.
However, the Congress was of the view that both NC and Congress should share two members each in the nomination quota of LAHDC Kargil.
Meanwhile, official sources said since the Government was busy in Zubin Mehta’s concert in Srinagar today, no decision could be taken on the Congress demand.
The Congress had asked the Government to rescind the order nominating four NC leaders to LAHDC Kargil or explore other legal options of withdrawing two nominated members to replace them with Congress leaders.
Prof Soz has been camping in Srinagar for the past two days to get the nominations withdrawn.
This was after a long time that all Congress Ministers belonging to two party factions headed by Prof Soz and Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, a former Chief Minister of J&K, have come on joint platform on the issue of LAHDC Kargil nominations.
Meanwhile, oath ceremony of LAHDC Kargil Councilors, which was scheduled to be held today, has been postponed. The next date of oath would be decided by Ladakh Affairs Department of the Government.
Under Article 93 of LAHDC Kargil Constitution, the oath ceremony of the Councilors and their General Body Meeting has to be held within a month of the notification of the elections. The notification of 26 elected members of LAHDC Kargil was issued by Deputy Commissioner, Kargil, Fida Hussain on September 2.
Principal District and Sessions Judge, Kargil, Tahir Khurshid Raina had to administer the oath to newly elected and nominated Councilors.
Sources said the Congress leaders from Kargil including district chief of the party Ghulam Raza have been camping in Srinagar awaiting the party high command’s nod for future course of action.
It may be reported here that nomination of four NC leaders to the LAHDC Kargil as Councilors had tilted majority in favour of the NC, which, otherwise, the Congress claimed was in its favour.
The LAHDC Kargil has 26 elected members. There was provision of nomination of four members to the Council by the Government.
Eleven Ministers of the Congress, who attended today’s meeting, were Tara Chand, Taj Mohi-ud-Din, Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed, GA Mir, Rigjin Jora, Sham Sharma, Raman Bhalla, Abdul Mujeed Wani (all Cabinet rank), Dr Manohar Lal Sharma, Shabir Khan and Aijaz Khan (all Minister of State with Independent charge).
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