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Restore statehood, hold polls: Gulam Nabi Azad

New Delhi
February 4, 2021

Raising concerns over prevailing situation in Jammu and Kashmir, particularly following abrogation of special provisions under Article 370 and Article 35A, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad today said local people across the three regions Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh were not happy and demanded that statehood to J&K should be restored and Assembly elections held at the earliest.

He was speaking in the Rajya Sabha while taking part in the debate over Motion of Thanks to the President�s speech to the joint sitting of both the Houses of Parliament.

�I never heard Atal Bihari Vajpayee or any BJP leader ever demanded that Jammu and Kashmir should be split into two. There was a demand for UT in only one district of Ladakh (Leh), not Kargil,� Azad said, adding: �Even though I would have been happy if Ladakh would have been made a UT and J&K left as it was�.

The Congress leader, however, congratulated the Government on successfully conducting the District Development Council (DDC) elections in J&K, but claimed that on other parameters both the UTs had fallen below their earlier positions.

�The law and order was 100 times better when J&K was a state. Developmental works were 100 times better when there was a state government, even when it was BJP-PDP Government,� he said, adding that tourism and education had been finished in the two UTs.