CM meets Shah, Madhav

Amit Khajuria

Tribune News Service

Jammu, April 14

Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is likely to convene a meeting of the unified headquarters in connection with the situation arising out of the four deaths in north-western Kupwara district.

The unified headquarters is a conglomerate of various security agencies.

Much of the Chief Minister’s three-day visit to the national capital was consumed in seeking the Centre’s assistance in controlling the situation in Handwara. She, in particular, made a plea to Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar that the Army inquiry into the firing and the killing of protesters be time-bound. She also demanded compensation for the next of kin of those killed.

Before flying to Srinagar on Thursday, the Chief Minister had a meeting with BJP president Amit Shah in the presence of BJP’s national general secretary Ram Madhav in which she discussed the working of the PDP-BJP coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir. She sought the cooperation of the alliance partner in furthering the development of the state and wanted that no unsettling issues should be allowed to come in between the two alliance partners.

Mehbooba Mufti, the sources said, commended the stand of the Union Government not to shift the National Institute of Technology from Srinagar. She appreciated the stand of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Human Resources Development Minister Smriti Irani on this count. She said that the trouble at NIT was a non-issue which had been blown out of proportion.

But, the sources said, she was told that the parameters of security should be the same for one and all.

The BJP, the sources said, is committed to make joint efforts for the development of the trouble-hit state.