Agartala (Tripura), Feb 14: Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said that the restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir will come up after assembly polls and that a call on the timing of elections will be taken by the Election Commission.
In an exclusive interview with news agency, Shah also said there has been improvement in the situation in Jammu and Kashmir and terrorism-related figures were at their lowest.
Shah said Article 370 pertaining to Jammu and Kashmir, which was abrogated by the BJP-led government in 2019, had harmed the country.
He said the way development is taking place in Jammu and Kashmir, terrorism is gradually ending.
“See all the figures, there is a lot of change in Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.
Answering queries, Shah said the government has been effective in tacking Left Wing Extremism and has kept a close watch on the activities of Khalistan sympathisers.
The minister said he cannot comment on the timing of the polls in Jammu and Kashmir.
“I had clearly stated that statehood will be restored in Jammu and Kashmir after elections. Process of preparation of voters’ list is nearing completion in the UT. Now, the Election Commission has to take a call on elections,” he said.
Asked about his earlier statement mentioning the emergence of new leadership in Jammu and Kashmir, Shah said that new leadership will emerge from local bodies where polls had been held earlier.

“The panchs and sarpanchs who have been elected, new leadership will emerge from them…Since the time terrorism started in Jammu & Kashmir, the terrorism-related figures are at its lowest today. Crores of tourists and yatris are visiting Jammu and Kashmir now. This is a huge change,” he said.
Shah said removing Article 370 has been on the agenda of BJP and Jan Sangh. He also referred India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in the context of Article 370.
“Since 1950, it was on our agenda to remove Art 370 from Jammu and Kashmir. Today, the way Jammu and Kashmir is witnessing development and decrease in terrorism shows that changes that are coming,” he said.
Shah said those slamming the BJP should answer in whose tenure terrorism grew in Jammu and Kashmir.
“As far as elections are concerned, do they not remember the local body polls, these were held under our rule, these did not take place for 70 years. Three families were holding sway in Jammu and Kashmir and they are making noise…Farooq Abdullah had gone to England. In whose tenure, terrorism grew, who allowed it to grow, there should be an answer,” he said. .
He said casualties of security forces in LWE (Left Wing Extremism)-related incidents has come down.
“In the last 9 years, Left Wing extremism almost eliminated from Bihar and Jharkhand and security vacuum filled in Chhattisgarh. For the first time in 20 years, the total casualties of locals and security personnel has gone below 100. This is a big achievement,” he said.
Answering a question about the activities of separatists and Khalistan supporters outside the country and their efforts to create trouble, he said there is good coordination between security agencies.
“We have maintained a close watch on this, also discussed this issue with Punjab govt. There is good coordination between different agencies. I am confident that we will not let it flourish,” he said.
Shah said the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act has been revoked from over 60 per cent of the areas in the northeast. (Agencies)

Jammu, Feb 13 (PTI) On protest for over eight months following targeted killings by terrorists, hundreds of Kashmiri migrant PM package employees and reserved category employees staged a separate sit-in here on Monday, reiterating their demand for relocation outside the Valley.
They also demanded immediate release of their pending salaries in view of the ‘Maha Shivratri’ festival, being observed later this week.
Scores of Prime Minister package Kashmiri migrant Pandit employees and Jammu-based Reserved Category employees shifted to Jammu in May last year following the killing of their colleagues, Rahul Bhat and Rajini Bala, by terrorists in the valley.
While Bhat was shot dead inside his office in central Kashmir’s Budgam district on May 12, Bala, a school teacher, was gunned down in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district on May 31, last year.
On February 4, Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha said many PM Package employees have resumed their duties in the valley and directions have been issued to release their pending salaries without delay.
“We have been on a protest strike for the last 280 days in support of our demand for relocation outside the valley. Our biggest festival, Maha Shivratri is round the corner and we demand that our pending salaries be released immediately,” said an employee, Rohit Raina.
Raina, who was posted in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district, was part of a large group of Pandit employees who staged a sit-in outside the Raj Bhavan in support of their demand for relocation and release of pending salaries.
He claimed that only a few hundred of PM package employees have resumed their duties under compulsion, while many of them are not willing to return due to a “sense of insecurity”.
“We want the government to relocate us and utilise our services in Jammu. We are ready to perform our duties,” he said.
Raina said they are suffering financially after the government stopped their salaries in September.
Suman, a woman protester, said they are hesitant to return to the valley due to the fear of being killed. “Relocate us to Jammu till you make Kashmir terrorism-free. We will return without a second thought to perform our duties in a tension-free atmosphere.”
Separately, hundreds of reserved category employees, hailing from different districts of the Jammu region, also staged a sit-in outside the Press Club on the 258th day of their strike.
“Our only demand is transfer policy for the reserved category employees numbering over 3,000 who are working in two dozen government departments. We want the Lt Governor to fulfill his promise which he had made to us,” one of the protesters, Yashpaul Sharma, said.
He said they will continue their protest and will not return to Kashmir in view of their security concerns.
“We are ready to serve anywhere in the Jammu region,” he said.

J&K, Feb 13:  PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Monday said the Supreme Court dismissing the petition challenging the delimitation process in Jammu and Kashmir was immaterial when legal challenges to abrogation of Article 370 and Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act were pending before the apex court.
“We have rejected the delimitation commission from the outset. It does not matter to us what the verdict is,” Mehbooba told reporters here, 41 km from Srinagar.
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea challenging the government’s decision to constitute the delimitation commission for redrawing the legislative assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir.
The former chief minister questioned the SC delivering the verdict on the delimitation petition when other pleas were still pending consideration.
“The challenge to the Reorganisation Act (under which the delimitation process was carried out) is pending, challenge to abrogation of Article 370 is pending before the SC. If all that is pending, how can they (the SC) give verdict on this petition?” she asked.
Mehbooba charged that delimitation was a “tactical process of rigging before the elections. That’s what they have done, converting the majority into a minority, in favour of the BJP. We have not even participated in the discussions of the delimitation commission.”
Asked if she still had faith in judiciary, Mehbooba said the courts were the last hope and resort of anyone in the country.
“As far as the judiciary is concerned, where will a poor person go? Even (Chief) Justice D Y Chandrachud has said that lower courts are scared of giving bail. If a court is scared of giving bail, how would they deliver (fair) verdicts?” she said.
“There was a time when a verdict from the court unseated then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Today, people don’t even get bail from the courts,” she added.

Srinagar, Febv 13: The Supreme Court’s dismissal of a petition challenging the delimitation process in Jammu and Kashmir has added to the long list of disappointments for the people of the Union Territory, CPI(M) leader MY Tarigami said on Monday.

“There is nothing much to say about the Supreme Court decision on delimitation other than that it is another disappointment for the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” Tarigami, who is also a spokesperson for the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration, told PTI.

Carrying out the delimitation process under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act is unacceptable, he said.

“It is just delimitation in the name of delimitation. They have virtually disrupted the unity of people of Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea challenging the government’s decision to constitute the delimitation commission for redrawing the legislative assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies in the Union Territory.

A bench of Justice SK Kaul and Justice AS Oka delivered the verdict on a plea filed by two Kashmir residents.

Tarigami said there were a bunch of petitions challenging the abrogation of Article 370 and the Reorganisation Act before the Supreme Court but those were not being heard.

“I had moved an application for early hearing of those petitions… the previous Chief Justice of India had said the petitions would be listed after Dussehra, the incumbent Chief Justice of India said the hearing would be done after the vacations.

“There was little hope after these assurances but even these have not matured and only resulted in disappointments,” he added. 

Jammu, 13 Feb: Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Monday attacked the government over the ongoing anti-encroachment drive in Jammu and Kashmir, saying that for peace and trust it is necessary to listen to the common people and not “crush their rights under the bulldozer”.

Major political parties such as the Congress, the National Conference, and the PDP have voiced their concerns against the drive and demanded an immediate end to it.

The authorities have so far retrieved more than 10 lakh kanals (one kanal =605 sq yards) of land across Jammu and Kashmir after the Commissioner Secretary, Revenue department, Vijay Kumar Bidhuri directed all deputy commissioners to ensure 100 per cent removal of encroachments from the state land on January 7.

In a tweet in Hindi, Gandhi alleged that atrocities are being committed on the people demanding restoration of their constitutional rights in Ladakh.

“In Kashmir, without paying heed to what the common people are saying, their houses are being bulldozed,” the Congress general secretary claimed.

“A country is made of people. For peace and trust, it is necessary to listen to the common people and not crush their rights under the bulldozer,” Gandhi said. She also tagged screenshots of various media reports on the eviction drive in Jammu and Kashmir. (Agencies)