Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Nov 10: The separatist leader turned main stream political leader and People’s Conference chairman, Sajjad Gani Lone today met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the possibility of working with the saffron party in Kashmir during Assembly elections.
After half an hour meeting with the Prime Minister, Lone said: “I came as a Kashmiri to meet the Prime Minister and I was pleasantly surprised with his down to earth personality, his vision about bringing in investments into the State.”
The PC chairman said that during his meeting with the PM, he apprised him about the difficulties faced by the Kashmir due to floods in Kashmir. “A series of issues were discussed, however, the main focus remained the recent floods in Kashmir and the need for swift and concrete efforts towards relief and rehabilitation in its wake”, he added.
However, sources in PC said that he discussed the Assembly elections and post poll alliance with BJP in Kashmir. Lone had consultations with BJP leaders including Ram Madhav last month in Srinagar.
On post-poll alliance, Lone said: “Let the results come out. Our party is not averse to having an alliance with anyone for we don’t believe that party ‘A’ is good and party ‘B’ is bad.”
Sajjad said the meeting was held in a very cordial and receptive atmosphere. “The main agenda of the meeting was an exchange of ideas on the ways and means of developing the State to its full potential”, he said.
The PC chairman underscored the need to seize the recent adversity as an opportunity and work towards the development of Kashmir as one of the most beautiful places in the world and a premiere global tourist destination.
Lone told PM that it was a unique opportunity to develop Kashmir as the prototype of a Smart City. “The PM responded very positively both to the concept of Smart City and that of tourist destination by drawing parallels with the region of Kutch (Gujarat) which too had undergone a disastrous earthquake some years back and had now been transformed into a leading tourist hub”, he said.
“The immediate challenge, however, was identified as the need to redress the huge losses suffered across the various sectors in the recent floods including public infrastructure, damaged dwellings, business losses, agricultural and horticultural losses etc”, Lone said.
While paying tributes to the local youth who played a key role in mitigating the losses especially that of life, the PC chairman stressed upon the need to reinforce the local effort by pooling in talent from across India and evolving a scientific plan to develop Kashmir, an intrinsic element of which should be robust mechanisms to avert future such catastrophes.
Lone also brought the plight of the northern border region of Kupwara and Baramulla to the PM’s notice and the need for alleviating the hardships of this sensitive region. In this regard he put forward a series of suggestions. This included foremost the construction of a 6 lane Expressway from Srinagar to Kupwara in a bid to bridge the difference of both distance and opportunities.
Sajjad is son of senior slain Hurriyat leader, Abdul Gani Lone who was killed allegedly by militants and brother of Hurriyat Executive member, Bilal Lone.
Lone had fielded proxy candidates in 2008 elections and contested the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.
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