{"id":20045,"date":"2020-01-08T11:54:58","date_gmt":"2020-01-08T06:24:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kashmir.today\/?p=20045"},"modified":"2020-01-08T11:54:58","modified_gmt":"2020-01-08T06:24:58","slug":"bukhari-co-meet-lg-seek-statehood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/?p=20045","title":{"rendered":"Bukhari & Co Meet LG, Seek Statehood"},"content":{"rendered":"

SRINAGAR \u2013<\/em><\/strong> Eight former legislators led by Syed Altaf Bukhari on Tuesday became the first group of mainstream politicians to open the channels of communication with the office of Jammu and Kashmir\u2019s Lieutenant Governor and making a slew of demands including restoration of statehood.<\/em><\/p>\n

The delegation met G C Murmu in Jammu and submitted a memorandum demanding safeguarding rights of people over land and jobs, release of detainees and withdrawing cases against youth among others.<\/em><\/p>\n

Bukhari was the state\u2019s finance minister in the PDP-BJP coalition government.<\/em><\/p>\n

The memorandum submitted by the mainstream leaders to the LG insists that the issue of statehood holds more emotional importance than legal for the residents of Jammu and Kashmir as they had not realised its essence until August 5, 2019.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cStatehood for the inhabitants of the erstwhile princely state is something they genuinely relate to as a reference to their glorious past, a place which has been a mosaic of various religions, cultures, languages and regions. So Statehood for these people is solidification of the idea of pluralism and respectful coexistence,\u201d the memorandum reads.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cSince the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir\u2019s special status embedded in Article 370 of the Indian Constitution and bifurcation of the State into two Union Territories \u2014 Jammu and Kashmir with a legislature and Ladakh without one \u2014 the majority of its residents are yet to reconcile with this decision,\u201d it adds.<\/em><\/p>\n

Among other demands were restoration of J&K Bank\u2019s functional dominion, reviving agriculture and horticulture sectors, support for Industry and manufacturing sector, tourism and allied industries and their revival.<\/em><\/p>\n

They also demanded relief for general trade including shopkeepers, bus and taxi owners, addressing unemployment and restoration of internet services.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cFact of the matter is that a majority of people in Jammu and Kashmir feel hurt and there are vocal concerns wherein they feel their decades-long privileges were unceremoniously curtailed,\u201d the memorandum reads.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cTo win over the confidence of the people, the Centre will have to re-examine its decades old policies vis-\u00e0-vis Kashmir. Depending solely on security measures and dealing with peoples\u2019 political aspirations through the law and order prism will always have its old tested repercussions,\u201d it further adds<\/em><\/p>\n

The other members of the delegation were Ghulam Hassan Mir (president, Democratic Party Nationalist), Mohammad Dilawar Mir (former minister), Zaffar Iqbal (former PDP MLC), Javed Hassan Beig, Noor Mohammad Shiekh, Choudhary Qamar Hussain and Raja Manzoor Ahmad (all former PDP MLAs).<\/em><\/p>\n

Most of the leaders were part of the PDP till the fall of the PDP-BJP government in 2018. Ghulam Hassan Mir was in PDP till 2008.<\/em><\/p>\n

The move to meet the LG comes on the fourth death anniversary of PDP founder Mufti Mohammad Mohammad Sayeed.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SRINAGAR \u2013 Eight former legislators led by Syed Altaf Bukhari on Tuesday became the first group of mainstream politicians to open the channels of communication with the office of Jammu and Kashmir\u2019s Lieutenant Governor and making a slew of demands including restoration of statehood. The delegation met G C Murmu in Jammu and submitted a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-union-territory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20045\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}