New Delhi, Feb 10: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday called on Union Home Minister Amit Shah and discussed J&K statehood, law and order, and other issues with him.
Talking to reporters after meeting Home Minister, Omar Abdullah said that he held a detailed discussion with Amit Shah over J&K statehood, matters related to governance, the security situation, and the upcoming budget session of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly.
This was the third meeting of Omar Abdullah with Amit Shah since taking over as the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir.
During the meeting, which lasted for 30 minutes, officials said the chief minister briefed Shah about the situation in J&K after the two recent incidents — the death of a person by suicide in Kathua in Jammu, and the shooting of a truck driver after he did not stop at a checkpoint in Sopore in north Kashmir.
After these incidents that took place on February 4 and 5, the chief minister said that incidents like these “risk alienating the very people who we need to carry with us on the road to complete normalcy”.
“I have taken up these incidents with the Union Government & insisted that both incidents are inquired into in a time-bound, transparent manner. The Government in J&K will also order its inquiries,” Abdullah had said in a post on X.
During the meeting on Monday, the chief minister is believed to have conveyed to the home minister the need to take the people of the UT into confidence and that as the public representative of the people, his government should have a say in maintaining the law and order, the officials said.
Abdullah said that the last stages of militancy won’t be succeeded in a vacuum, according to the officials.
A strong votary of peaceful Jammu and Kashmir, Abdullah has been emphasizing that the situation in the UT cannot be normalized in a vacuum.
The meeting came a week after Shah chaired two back-to-back meetings in two days where the security situation of J&K was discussed threadbare.
“The Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Shri @OmarAbdullah, called on Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri @AmitShah,” Shah’s office wrote on ‘X’.
During Monday’s meeting, the officials said Abdullah also apprised the home minister about the business rules which are likely to be vetted by the MHA.
After the erstwhile state was downgraded into two UTs in 2019, the law and order is under the direct control of the central government.
Abdullah also discussed some changes in the industrial and tourism policies to incentivize the manufacturing sector and bring more tourists.
Last week, the Home Minister chaired a security review meeting at his residence in New Delhi. The meeting was attended by top security and civil officials including Lt Governor Manoj Sinha.