Omar hits back at Amit Shah
‘Give lectures on family rule in Maharashtra and Punjab, not JK’
A day after the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah stated that he wanted to see J&K “free from Abdullahs and Muftis”, the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Tuesday hit back saying the BJP leaders “should give such lectures in States like Maharashtra and Punjab and then talk about Abdullahs.”
Talking to reporters after laying foundation of a Sewerage Treatment Plant (STP) at Zero Bridge here, Omar said: “The BJP leaders like Amit Shah should first give lectures on dynasties in the States like Maharashtra and Punjab and then talk about J&K. I have a few more States in mind where they should give such sermons. Targeting JK at the outset is nothing but hypocrisy on part of the BJP leaders.”
On Shah’s assertion that central funds have been misused in his government, Omar said the Government of India provides most of the funds and it must know where they have been misused. “They should identify the areas and clear where their funds have been misused,” he said.
Omar slammed Shah’s remarks that the State government was neglecting the people living near the Line of Control. “If somebody has ignored the residents living near the fence, it is the Centre. I can count that five Union Ministers who visited J&K recently. They visited Kashmir, Ladakh and even Jammu separately but none of them went to see the border areas. Whose problem is that? I can’t drag them to see the LoC villages,” he said.
‘No fresh project to NHPC’
Omar said the government has adopted a fresh policy not to give any project to the National Hydel Power Corporation (NHPC) unless the company enters into a Joint Venture with the State.
Omar was responding to assertions made by the Union Minister of State for Power Piyush Goyal that Centre has no role in return of power projects under NHPC to the State.
“If NHPC has adopted a rigid stand, so will we. If it is ready to enter into a joint venture with us, we will go ahead; if not, so be it. The State will wait for the time when it would be fully capable to generate power of its own.”
Omar said people of J&K have already been facing a biggest deception in the form of the Indus Water Treaty (IWT).
“Under the Joint Venture system, the State will be entitled to get back a power project after 30 years. If the NHPC is ready to accept our conditions, we will cooperate, if not, so be it,” he said12