‘G20 meet will help promote tourism’
SRINAGAR, May 13:
National Conference president Farooq Abdullah today congratulated the people of Karnataka for “rejecting” those who want to divide the country on religious lines.
He said the brave people of Karnataka have given them a “befitting reply” that India is one and “we all, belonging to any religion, will take this country, the State, forward together”.
“I congratulate the people of Karnataka for rejecting those who want to divide us on religious lines, who used to threaten that if you vote for anyone else, then everything will be stopped,” Abdullah said.
The NC president also congratulated Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, party leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and workers for fighting the election in “difficult times”.
The Bharat Jodo Yatra is showing its results and if we have to keep the country together, then we all have to work together and there has to be no fight on religious lines, Abdullah said.
About the third Tourism Working Group meeting of the G20 in Kashmir later this month, he expressed hope that it will help in promoting tourism in J-K.
He, however, expressed displeasure over the soaring airfares on the Srinagar sector.
“Look at the airfares. Today, if you have to come to Srinagar from Delhi, it takes Rs 24,000 for one ticket. But, the return airfare to Dubai is Rs 25,000. Then, how will tourism increase? Till the airfares are regulated so that a person or a family can afford it, the tourism will not increase,” he said.
Abdullah appealed to the Centre to provide assistance to GoFirst airline so that it runs its operations again.
“GoAir (as it was previously known as) needs help. About eight flights of the airline used to fly here and the airfare was also in check. Since it shut operations, the airfare has touched the sky. So, I appeal to the Centre to provide some assistance to the airline so that it runs its operations,” he said.
Meanwhile, National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah today said there is “no way” the BJP will have the courage to “allow” Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir after its performance in the Karnataka polls.
“Now there is no way BJP will have the courage to allow Assembly elections to take place in Jammu and Kashmir any time soon #KarnatakaElectionResults,” Abdullah, the vice president of the NC, said in a tweet.
Non-BJP parties, including NC, PDP and Congress, in Jammu and Kashmir have been demanding Assembly elections in the Union Territory. The last Assembly polls in the erstwhile State took place in 2014.
In 2018, the then Governor Satya Pal Malik dissolved the Assembly after the BJP withdrew support to the Mehbooba Mufti led PDP-BJP alliance. Jammu and Kashmir was put under the Central rule and in 2019, it was divided into Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. (PTI)
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