Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 18: Former Union Minister and Pradesh Congress Committee president Prof Saif-ud-Din Soz today said that elections in J&K should not be held under Governor’s rule and the aspirations of the people should be respected while taking any such decision.
“I do not want to go into the details or make any comment why Chief Minister is shy of elections, but we will have to follow the verdict of people. Majority of the people in the State want that Assembly elections should be held in time. We also want that it should not be held under Governor’s rule. We would like to go with the decision of the majority people. Let the elections be held in time and popular Government take over shortly to resume the relief and restoration work in the rains and flood affected State,” Prof Soz told media-persons here.
When asked why NC was opposed to elections, the PCC president said he would not be able to say anything on it but it is also true that massive devastation has taken place in Kashmir and people suffered losses. The things have started improving. But despite this all it has been learnt that the majority of the people want polls in time. The Congress wants that aspirations of the people from all the three regions be respected. So going by their decision Congress would support them for holding polls in time.
PCC chief remarked, “Since the Election Commission team was here in J&K to discuss the issue with the people from all the sections of society and political parties, we hope they will take a matured decision after examining the situation from all the angles. Let them take a decision in this regard,” Prof Soz maintained.
“We have conveyed to the EC team that we would go with the decision of the people and the people in the State want the elections to be held as per the schedule. The people here feel that only the new Government can provide relief and rehabilitation to the flood-affected people,” Soz said.
Taking entire credit with regard to the major decision of recommending Rs 9096 crore package by the State Cabinet to the Central Government for PoK, Chhamb and West Pakistan refugees, Prof Soz said it could be possible only with the efforts of Congress leadership. He said the then AICC president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and AICC vice president Rahul Gandhi had taken keen interest in resolving decades old issue of the refugees. Dr Manmohan Singh had asked the State Government to work out the package and recommend to the Centre. This big exercise was being done since long.
While replying to yet another question why West Pakistan refugees were not accorded citizenship rights while it was under the domain of State Government whereas, package is yet to be accepted by the Centre, Prof Soz tried to skip the answer and said, “Wo Mudda Agle Zamane Mein Dekha Jayega.”
When asked was he satisfied with the relief and rehabilitation initiative of Modi Govt in the State, Soz said, “Whatever was said by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not been implemented on ground, though various teams from the Central Government visited the Valley, but implementation is still awaited.”
Earlier, Prof Soz accompanied by several senior party leaders including R S Chib, Mula Ram, Th Hari Singh, Suman Bhagat, Ravinder Sharma, Swarn Latra, Manjit Singh and others had interaction with the various refugees’/ DPs bodies and discussed next course of action. Prof Soz congratulated them for this win. Several refugees leaders also spoke on the occasion and extended gratitude to Prof Soz, PCC team and top Congress leaders and the State Cabinet led by Omar Abdullah for taking this historic decision.
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