Tribune News Service

Srinagar, May 8

CPM state secretary and legislator Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami on Sunday said he would “vehemently oppose” any move to establish ‘Sainik Colonies’ for retired Army personnel in the state.“Since the plan in a way envisages settling non-permanent resident retired soldiers in J&K, it amounts to virtual scraping of the state’s special status covertly,” Tarigami said in a statement.Tarigami said such move will “further alienate the overwhelming majority of the state” at a time when the support for retaining and strengthening the Article 370 and special status of the state is rapidly growing.“One is constrained to infer that this motivated move may be the hidden item of the Agenda of Alliance. It is our party’s considered opinion that the move will further complicate the Kashmir imbroglio and the efforts to resolve it would be seriously jeopardised,” he said.“It is in the best interest of the state and the country at large that the plan, if envisioned, should be renounced permanently so that the fragile peace is not disturbed,” Tarigami said.

Says move will alienate the majority

• “Since the plan in a way envisages settling non-permanent resident retired soldiers in J&K, it amounts to virtual scraping of the state’s special status covertly,” CPM state secretary MY Tarigami said.
• Such move will “further alienate the overwhelming majority of the state” at a time when the support for retaining and strengthening the Article 370 and special status of the state was rapidly growing, he said.
• “It is in the best interests of the state and the country at large that the plan, if envisioned, should be renounced permanently so that the fragile peace is not disturbed,” he added.

Prove Sainik Colony claim: NC to Akhter

Srinagar, May 8

The National Conference (NC) today asked government spokesperson Naeem Akhter, who had denied that the government had initiated the process to allocate land for Sainik Colony, to substantiate his statement or else resign.NC spokesperson Junaid Mattu said Akhter should substantiate his statement denying allocation of land for Sainik Colony “failing which he should resign from the state Cabinet for deliberately disseminating lies on such a sensitive matter”.“There was unambiguous proof that successive PDP-BJP governments headed by late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and (incumbent CM) Mehbooba Mufti were involved in the process of allocating hundreds of kanals of land for the proposed Sainik Colony in Srinagar,” Mattu said in a statement. He claimed that the “official documents prove it beyond any reasonable doubt that the official process of identification land for Sainik Colony … was initiated twice in 2015 and 2016”. — TNS