Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday said his first endeavour is to restore the honour of J&K citizens and asserted that people must have first rights on land, jobs and resources.
Addressing his maiden interaction with members of civil society at SKICC, here, Omar said after a long time J&K has got an elected government.
“I was a Chief Minister earlier also. But there is a difference, rather a huge difference between the past and the present,” he said.
“Now I want to respond to the points raised here. Don’t we have a right to live a dignified life. Sadak, Bijli and Pani is something we will get. But all these things are meaningless if we have no respect. I want our honour to be restored. People of J&K should have first rights to their jobs, land and resources.”
“Everything is meaningless if the identity of J&K people is not respected. My government will fight for the lost identity of Jammu & Kashmir. We have rights on our own land and resources. If our identity is respected we can say we are being honoured in the country,” he said.
He said the press, judiciary, Bar Association, trade unions, labour unions need to be strengthened.
“This is a need so that people feel there is no force or fear but a real handholding and cooperative approach,” Omar said.
The Chief Minister said he recently met Prime Minister Narendera Modi and other ministers in New Delhi. “I got assurances in full that whatever is good for the benefit of J&K will be done”.
He said J&K hasn’t reached a stage where it can run without a hand holding.
“Be it horticulture, power or other sectors, we need to reach a stage of self-sufficiency. Then we can tell the Centre that thank you very much for holding our hand so far but now we are self-sufficient and can run our affairs on our own,” Omar said.
He said the issue of drug abuse raised by Civil Society members needs special attention and urged the religious heads and civil society members to join hands with the government to eradicate the drug menace from the society. “There is a need for opening more Drug De-Addiction (DDA) centres across J&K”.
The CM said that next time he would meet the Civil Society members, Action Taken Reports (ATRs) will be shared on the issues discussed today.
He said the government wants good bonding with its people, and want to establish regular meetings with different sections of the society. “At least two meetings should be held in a year to cement the government-public bonding”.
The CM said his government is meant for the people of Jammu & Kashmir, and “we are hopeful that the UT governance system will come to an end soon.”
“There was no democratic system in J&K for the last six years. The democratic system is meant for strengthening peoples’ bond with the government. The government will strictly emphasize on it. We are hopeful that the current UT governance model will be over soon,” Omar asserted.
Cabinet Ministers Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary, Javaid Dar, Javaid Rana, Sakina Itoo, Satish Sharma were present besides Chief Secretary Atal Dullo, Divisional Commissioner Kashmir V K Bhiduri, IGP Kashmir V K Bhirdi, and other officers were present on the occasion.
Over 100 civil society members participated in the interactive session as well.