Jammu and Kashmir Assembly passes resolution on restoration of special status

The Jammu and Kashmir Assembly on Wednesday passed a resolution asking the Centre to hold dialogue with elected representatives for restoration of special status of the erstwhile stateThe resolution which also expressed ldquoconcernrdquo over the ldquounilateral removalrdquo of the special status was passed without any debate as the Speaker put it to voice vote amidst noisy scenesWith the passage of the resolution the ruling NC said it has fulfilled one of its manifesto promises while Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said the ldquoAssembly has done its jobrdquoThe members of the PDP Peoplesrsquo Conference and CPIM supported the resolution during the voice voteThe Modi government abrogated Article 370 which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir in 2019 and bifurcated the erstwhile state into two Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and LadakhJampK Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary moved the resolution which said ldquoThat this legislative Assembly reaffirms the importance of the special status and constitutional guarantees which safeguarded the identity culture and rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and expresses concern over their unilateral removalrdquoThe Congress which is an alliance partner of the ruling NC said statehood to JampK with constitutional guarantees including protection of land and jobs rights must be restored without any further delayBJP holds protestThe BJPrsquos Jammu and Kashmir unit staged a protest to denounce the resolution on the restoration of JampKrsquos special status which was passed by the assembly on WednesdayLed by party president Sat Paul Sharma a group of BJP workers came out of the party headquarters at Trikuta Nagar in the outskirts of the city in the afternoon and set ablaze a joint effigy of CM Omar Abdullah and his deputy Surinder Choudhary amid slogans against the NCled governmentThe unruly scenes in the House and vociferous protests by BJP members led to frequent disruptions of the proceedings and eventually the speaker adjourned the House for the day The BJP members also tore copies of the document and raised slogans against the speakerHalfhearted effortPDP president Mehbooba Mufti said the resolution passed by the Assembly for restoration of special status was a ldquohalfheartedrdquo effort which could have been written ldquoin a better wayrdquoldquoWe believe the language of this resolution could have been better There is no condemnation of abrogation of Article 370 in this resolution They NC talk about holding dialogue for restoration of the special status What is the dialogue for Do they have any doubt that what happened on August 5 2019 was wrong I would say it was a halfhearted effortrdquo Mehbooba told reportersThe PDP chief said it was ldquosadrdquo that the resolution did not term the abrogation as illegal2019Year Article 370 was abrogatedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever