Srinagar, Jan 3: Normalcy has not been fully restored in Jammu and Kashmir yet as terror attacks continue to take place but the process for establishing peace is underway, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said on Friday.
Abdullah’s remarks came a day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah said Article 370 had sowed the seeds of separatism in the minds of Kashmir’s youth and that the Narendra Modi government not only ended terrorism in the valley but also the terror ecosystem.
“I do not want to say anything on that (Shah’s statement). (But), today also, reports come from some places when attacks take place. Normalcy has not been fully restored in Jammu and Kashmir even today. It is a process and we will have to see what happens in the coming days,” Abdullah told reporters.
The chief minister also trashed rumors that Jammu and Kashmir’s name was being changed to “Kashyap”.
“There is nothing like that. Some media houses ran it but then corrected it. No such proposal is there and it anyways cannot happen without the consent of the Jammu and Kashmir government,” he added.
Asked about the government’s preparations given the forecast of snowfall, Abdullah said the administration was ready to deal with it.
“We will deal with it. We are prepared, we have had several meetings and we also have experience after the last snowfall. If there were any lacunae last time, we will correct that this time,” he said.
To a question about the electricity supply situation in the valley, the chief minister said whatever could be done was being done and the power situation this year was better than the previous years.
“(Power) cuts are taking place but attempts are being made to provide electricity to people according to the schedule. When there is a problem in the system, it is rectified at the earliest,” he said.
Earlier on Thursday, the Chief Minister expressed hope that Jammu and Kashmir’s Union Territory status is a temporary phase and that the central government fulfill its promise of restoring its statehood.
“For us, the biggest challenge is to get our statehood back. We the people are now expecting that the promises made to us will be fulfilled. The biggest promise is the restoration of the statehood.
“The Supreme Court in its judgment had also stated that the statehood should be restored as soon as possible. One year has passed since and we think one year should be enough,” Abdullah said in a freewheeling interaction with media persons here.
He took questions on various issues confronting his two-month-old government, including the functioning of an elected government that has to share powers with the Centre’s appointee — the Lieutenant Governor.
“It has been a little over two months since we came to power. It took us time to understand how the UT government works. We have been associated with the government earlier, but there is a vast difference between that form and the present form,” Abdullah said.
The Centre on August 5, 2019, revoked Article 370 of the Constitution that gave special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir and reorganized the state into two UTs. While J-K has a legislative assembly with limited powers, Ladakh is without a legislature.
In December 2023, the Supreme Court upheld the Centre’s decisions to revoke special status and create the two UTs but told the Union government to restore the statehood of J-K as soon as possible.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minster Amit Shah have on numerous occasions, including in Parliament, said that the statehood of J-K would be restored at an appropriate time.
Abdullah, speaking to the reporters, said the start of the new government has been “decent” and that they “did not find much difficulty” in it.