Congress demands immediate restoration of full statehood to J-K, says Centre’s promise remains unfulfilled

The Congress on Wednesday demanded the immediate and unconditional restoration of full statehood to Jammu and Kashmir, alleging that the Centre had failed to honour repeated assurances despite the completion of the delimitation exercise and the conduct of Assembly election.

AICC general secretary in-charge of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh and Rajya Sabha MP Syed Naseer Hussain said seven years after the abrogation of Article 370 and the bifurcation of the erstwhile state, the people of Jammu and Kashmir are still waiting for the restoration of full statehood.

He said both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah had repeatedly assured that statehood would be restored, but those commitments had not been fulfilled.

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Hussain said that with delimitation completed and elections held, there was no justification for continuing with an arrangement under which the Lieutenant Governor exercised overriding authority over matters that should be handled by an elected government.

He alleged that the existing framework was contrary to the federal principles of the Constitution and denied the people of Jammu and Kashmir the democratic self-governance available to other states.

The Congress demanded the immediate and unconditional restoration of full statehood to Jammu and Kashmir, full constitutional authority for the democratically elected government, and adherence to the constitutional framework, democratic institutions and federal principles.

Saying that the people of Jammu and Kashmir had waited for seven years, Hussain urged the Union government to fulfil its repeated commitment and restore full statehood without any further delay.