STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU/SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee on Monday asked the LG Manoj Sinha to immediately order an independent investigation into the serious allegations of forcible conversions and marriages of two Sikh girls in Kashmir and make public the findings in a time bound manner..
Expressing serious concern over the allegations of forcible conversions and marriages of two Sikh girls, JKPCC has sought a thorough probe and making public the findings in the shortest possible time to take stern action accordingly.
JKPCC Chief spokesperson Ravinder Sharma said that the party strongly condemned such incidents as alleged and the minorities should be fully protected including their dignity, honour and freedom in all respects.
“Any such incident should be taken with all seriouness in view of the sensitivity of the issue. Stern action should be taken against those found involved in the alleged commission of crime and creating tensions amongst communities,” he said and cautioned the people against attempts to create communal tensions by such incidents.
R K Chadha, President Citizen’s Forum: Can anybody tell us what Jammu got from its elected representatives during the past 70 years as compared to Kashmir in respect of development and progress in any field. We are not against the winning and election of leaders but they were never capable to get any reasonable, what to talk of equitable share for Jammu region. These powerful and rich leaders are daily raking up just one issue of holding elections and nothing else. During the current gubernatorial administration at least we are getting some development in Jammu and we don’t want to lose the tempo. We don’t want Chief Ministers or Dy Chief Ministers who promise moon but give nothing. There has been a classic promise of completing the Tawi Lake Project with Sabarmati type front in three months but after three years nothing has happened. The leaders are only interested in black-topping of road patches of the areas belonging to Jammu Municipal Corporation.
Yogesh Sawhney, former minister: We welcome the step taken by the PM but it is sad that it was a meeting with no agenda. We were hopeful about something to emerge for the people of Jammu and Kashmir nothing of the sort happened. I am happy that the Congress raised the issues including grant of statehood, conduct of Assembly elections, rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits in Kashmir, release of all political prisoners and guarantee on lands and jobs to permanent residents. Congress believes in talks and has raised the issues of people in this meeting but the so called BJP leaders from Jammu preferred to remain mute as they did not find it prudent to raise the issues of employment or problems faced by Jammu people. The BJP leaders participated like dummy guests and said nothing. We are sure that the Congress will always support and highlight the issues of the people of Jammu.
Jitender Kohli, Sr Columnist, Ex- State Press & Publicity Secretary VHP J&K: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has proven his positive approach and foresight about Jammu Kashmir with a clear message that there is nothing to pullback. Now the delimitation is the first step before the election process takes off. It is necessary to uphold the Constitution of India and to strengthen democracy in this part of the country, as these underwent a huge dent over the years. The Gupkar alliance knows that they can’t achieve anything and will not succeed to drive the people away from the national mainstream. Common people of Jammu and Kashmir regions understand that they getting something now that was denied to them from 1947 to 4th August 2019 by the successive governments in Delhi and Srinagar/Jammu. As far as the demand of the Jammu people about separate state is concerned, it is genuine. The delimitation process is expected to remove the imbalance and the aspirations of the people in both the regions and sub-regions would be met by the responsive administration. The nationalist people of Jammu and leaders are proud of having a Prime Minister, who cares for the nation. He believes in nation first and has chartered a mission to ensure equal development and to uphold the dignity of all. Jammu nationalists have never been ignored by Praja Parshid- Jana Sangh – BJP. They have always been betrayed by the so-called mainstream and dynastic political parties. It’s time that people of Jammu and Kashmir move shoulder to shoulder with the national mainstream for peace, progress and development.
Neeraj Anand, President Chamber of Traders Federation Jammu: All Party Meeting was need of the hour and we welcome this step. We all were hoping that in this meeting issues like elections, delimitation and statehood will be discussed and some good results will be there. It is unfortunate that no decisions were taken and as usual only fake and false promises were made in the much hyped meeting. No issues related to jobs, business activities and development were discussed. We demand restoration of statehood. We hope that in future dialogue process will start and some fruitful results will be there.