Team Jammu seeks constitutional measures on lines of Himachal

Tribune News Service

Jammu, August 11

Describing the abrogation of Article 370 as a historic decision by the Government of India to bring normalcy in the trouble-torn state, Team Jammu has stressed constitutional measures on the pattern of neighbouring Himachal Pradesh to protect job security of locals and their cultural identity.

Addressing a press conference on Sunday, Team Jammu chairman Zorawar Singh Jamwal said the abrogation of Article 370 had ended the special status of the elite families in J&K, who had been directly or indirectly ruling the state and blackmailing the Centre for the last seven decades.

“In the name of special status, these handful of elite families had made the entire state their hostage and subjected people of Jammu to injustice and discrimination in every sphere, including development, employment and business,” he alleged.

Particularly highlighting the injustice meted out to the West Pakistan refugees and Balmiki community and gender discrimination under Article 35A, Jamwal said there was no example of such human rights violation in any civilised society.

Predicting that the abrogation of Article 370 and the new arrangement of the two union territories would help the government restore permanent peace in the trouble-torn J&K and usher in an era of development, the Team Jammu chief said a new hope had kindled among people of Jammu, particularly youth, who were uncertain about their future earlier because of rampant corruption and nepotism in the state.

“Even as people of this region have been very rightly demanding a separate Jammu state because of injustice meted out to them by the successive Kashmir-centric governments, we are hopeful that under the new arrangement, equal opportunities will be provided to everyone without regional discrimination,” he said, while endorsing Prime Minister’s announcement that statehood would be granted after the restoration of normalcy.

Supporting the initiatives of the Centre, Jamwal also stressed that interests of local youth and cultural identity of the Dogras must be protected under the new arrangement by introducing certain constitutional measures on the pattern of Himachal Pradesh, so that floodgates were not opened for land mafia and non-locals.

“Similarly, it must be ensured that the ecology of J&K was not disturbed in the name of industrialisation. Only eco-industries should be allowed to set up their units here,” he said.