Sharma’s second visit from Nov 24

Tribune News Service

Jammu, November 21

Centre’s special representative Dineshwar Sharma will undertake his second visit to Jammu and Kashmir from Friday. During his nearly week-long stay in the state, he will meet youth and try to reach out to all sections whom he could not meet during his first visit early this month.

Sharma would be landing in Jammu on November 24 where he would be meeting some of the groups.

Sources said this time Sharma would be widening the ambit of his meetings with people of different walks of life, representing varying shades of opinion. His attempt would be to listen to the views of all men and women, who feel alienated and have dissenting voices about the dialogue process.

He will fly to Srinagar on November 26 and return to Delhi on November 29, the sources said. That he is undertaking his second visit in less than a fortnight after the conclusion of his first visit on November 11 shows that he is keen to pace up the dialogue process but with a cautious optimism, the sources said.

The success of his visit rests on the number of the people he would be able to meet and know their viewpoints. He would try to zero-in on the priority issues concerning their political, economic, social, educational and other grievances that deserve the immediate attention of the Central and the state governments.

Already, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has spoken about shifting young prisoners to welfare homes to provide them better atmosphere and surroundings. This has been attributed to the feedback that Sharma had given to the Centre after meeting various groups, and Governor NN Vohra and CM Mehbooba Mufti.

He was told that a soft and friendly approach towards the youth, who feel alienated, would be able to bridge the trust-deficit that exists between the Centre and the youth in J&K.

The sources also said Kashmiri Pandits were seen as an important stakeholders in the peace process and their opinion too would occupy the priority in his list of things, while he would renew his efforts to reach out to Hurriyat Conference leaders to demonstrate seriousness of the Government of India to end the impasse in Kashmir.

To widen ambit of talks

• Dineshwar Sharma will land in Jammu on November 24 where he will meet some of the groups whom he could not meet in his first visit
• Sharma would be widening the ambit of his meetings with people of different walks of life, representing varying shades of opinion
• He will fly to Srinagar on November 26 and return to Delhi on November 29