Jammu and Kashmir Political Movement (I), a new political party, on Monday stated that it was saddened by the Centre’s move of scrapping the Article 370 and the bifurcation of the State into two Union Territories (UTs), said that Government of India must restore statehood and maintain a status quo on the domicile rights in the erstwhile State.The new party said mass contact was a must to build pressure on GoI to clarify doubts on certain issues that include setting up factories, the outside investment and any reservation for outsiders in jobs in Kashmir.Addressing a press conference here at the Media Facilitation Centre, according to the wire service—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), JKPM (I) spokesman, Muhammad Shahid Khan, a counsellor by profession said that their party was in a state of “grief” over the revocation of Article 370 and was pushing hard for a mass contact program with the students and other sections of society so that a pressure is built on the GoI to clarify its stand on certain important issues. Khan, who was flanked by almost four of his more party members, was the first political activist to address the media post abrogation of Article 370 at a time when almost all the political leaders are under custody at sub-jail Centaur.“We believe that the time has come for all of us to understand and rethink to find the better ways and best possible solutions to improve the future of our future generations,” Shah said. “We believe that there are better possible ways to find out the solutions for every problem without resorting to violence and bloodshed.”
He said that the people of Jammu and Kashmir have been promised that the statehood will be restored. “We only want to know when,” Khan said. Elaborating the demands, he said that the JKPM (I) demands status quo to be maintained regarding the domicile rights in J&K, as is being maintained in different states of India already facing, so as to restore social security among the masses in Jammu and Kashmir. “Furthermore we would like to request the central government to provide statehood back to Jammu and Kashmir,” he said as per wire service—KNO.According to KNO, Khan said that Jammu and Kashmir being a small state is already facing a lot of problems due to its hilly topography as we are already facing a huge problem of unemployment, therefore the jobs in Government institutions should be only restricted to the people of J&K.“Environment being one of the concerns, and also the fact is that J&K in general and Kashmir in particular is a tourist resort hence no hazardous industry should be allowed to set up here,” he said. “We urge the government to restore the telecommunication, mobile and internet, since today’s life is totally dependent upoun communication, be it a student, businessman or a common man. It is pertinent to mention, here that the most of the landlines had been closed by the people since past one decade, and today’s life is totally dependent on telecommunication services, viz, mobile and internet.” Further,the JKPM (I) urged the government to release the detained youth arrested so far, keeping in view their career and age and not to arrest more youth. “This will serve as a confidence building measure among the people and bring life to normalcy,” he said, as per KNO.Asked repeatedly by the media men that whether the party was in favour of revocation of Article 370 and bifurcation of the State, Khan gave guarded reply, saying that “We want statehood back and status quo on the domicile rights of people. As far the Article 370 is concerned, we are saddened and at the same time we have so many doubts that the GoI must clarify, sooner the better,” Khan said as per the KNO Correspondent present in the presser.(KNO)