SRINAGAR, July 24: Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee President Vikar Rasool Wani on Wednesday demanded the restoration of statehood to JK before holding the Assembly election.
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“BJP had promised to restore the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir. Instead they destroyed the whole system by empowering the Lieutenant Governor”, Wani said during a press conference here.
“Had the Congress Government been formed at the centre, the statehood to Jammu and Kashmir would have been restored within a week’s time”, the PCC Chief said.
He said BJP knew that they were going to lose the forthcoming Assembly election and before that they minimized the powers of the elected Government and made it more powerful to the Lieutenant Governor.
Wani demanded that the BJP should first restore the statehood and after that hold elections in Jammu and Kashmir.
He said the elected government should be more powerful to redress the grievances of the people of the state.
“Approval for Rs 10 should not be taken from the Lieutenant Governor by the elected Government”, the Congress leader said.
When asked that in the Union Budget a separate allocation of funds has been created for the Jammu and Kashmir Police which will be looked after by the Home Ministry instead by the state administration, Wani said “if anything good in the reforms is being done by the central government, the party has no issue about that”.
But, he alleged that whatever the Home Ministry is doing is evident that they (BJP) did not have any intention to restore the statehood to the erstwhile historical state of Jammu and Kashmir.
He urged Home Minister Amit Shah to restore the statehood to Jammu and Kashmir and let the reforms be done by the elected Government itself.
The J&K PCC chief said that Congress will launch whatsApp numbers where people can lodge their complaints on any issue which would be included in the party’s manifesto.
He said in the leadership of senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Monga, a team of congress will visit all districts of Kashmir to know the people’s views and demands before the preparation of the party manifesto. (Agencies)
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