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Tosa Maidan lease will not be extended: Rather
KT NEWS SERVICE. Dated: 4/16/2014 2:52:43 PM
‘Committee will find some alternate location’
KHAN SAHIB-Budgam, Apr 15: National Conference senior leader and minister for finance Abdul Rahim Rather on Tuesday said that the state government will identify some alternate location for Tosa Maidan firing range and there will be no extension in the lease agreement expiring on April 18.
According to KNS , Rather while speaking a public meeting in Rawalpora Khan Sahib, said that it was PDP that extended the lease on the Toisa Maidan Artillery Range in 2004 when Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was the Chief Minister of the State.
“It is for this precise reason that PDP has chosen to talk in hushed, apologetic voices about this issue rather than categorically opposing the extension of the lease.” Rather said the government, through the special committee constituted for this purpose, had offered alternatives to the Security Forces and it would be ensured that the lease for the range is not extended, a statement issued by the NC confirmed.
Speaking on the occasion Dr. Farooq Abdullah said that friendly relations and mutual bilateral cooperation between India and Pakistan was a must for lasting peace and sustained development in the sub-continent and especially in J&K.
According to a statement issued to KNS, speaking at Khan Sahib Dr. Farooq Abdullah said it was Omar Abdullah who, in the presence of the Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi Ji unequivocally and unambiguously said that Kashmir Issue was a political issue in nature and not an economic or governance-related problem and hence needed a political initiative. Dr. Farooq Abdullah said that Sher-e-Kashmir Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah was one of the biggest advocates of Indo-Pak friendship and it was Sheikh Sahib who envisioned the opening of the Srinagar-Muzaffarbad Road and permanent economic and cultural exchanges between two side of the Line of Control.
Dr. Farooq Abdullah said that various important Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) including the opening of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad Road were fruits of sustained diplomatic engagement between New Delhi and Islamabad and Mufti Mohammad Sayeed had nothing to do in the conception or implementation of these historic steps to bring people of the two sides closer to each other. However, Mufti Sayeed has always invested most of his time and energy in claiming credit for the achievements and work of other people and this is something that PDP has now adopted as its official policy. While political marketing of actual achievements is a common part of politics now, marketing of non-existent work and lies is something that PDP has achieved a specialization in.
Dr. Farooq Abdullah also said that National Conference had advocated the partial revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) while in the government, unlike PDP leaders who chose to stay mum about these issues while they were in power but enacted theatrical, cosmetic dramas while in the opposition as a fig-leaf for sabotaging day-to-day governance in the State.
National Conference Leader and MLC Panchayati Raj, Ali Mohammad Dar, Vice President of the State Congress Advocate Abdul Aziz Parray, Congress Leader Shameema Raina, National Conference Leader Tariq Mohiuddin, Advocate Ghulam Nabi Shaheen and Ghulam Nabi Bhat were also present on the occasion.