‘Big change in J&K is people free to live life as they wish’

SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha said on Sunday that the era of separatist and terror organisations disrupting normal life in the Valley on Pakistan’s prodding has been relegated to pages of history, and development and peace are the buzzword here four years after the abrogation of Article 370.

Sinha said it is now entirely up to the Election Commission to take a call on holding assembly elections in the Union territory after the completion of the delimitation exercise and revision of electoral rolls.

“J&K administration will follow what the Election Commission of India decides,” he said while noting that over 32,000 elected representatives of various local bodies are very much part of the decision-making process in the UT.

Home Minister Amit Shah had given assurance in Parliament that assembly elections will follow the delimitation exercise and that Jammu and Kashmir will also get its statehood at an appropriate time, he noted.

If those who have served in constitutional positions and have been members of Parliament don’t understand the constitutional process, then there is no cure to their problems, he said in an apparent swipe at opposition parties that have been pushing for elections and the restoration of statehood.

To a question about incidents of ‘targeted killings’, at times aimed at Kashmiri Pandits and migrant workers, Sinha emphasised on the overall decline in such terror attacks. While people had earlier reconciled to frequent terror incidents, now the expectation is that there should be no such act under Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government, he said.

“Such an expectation is natural. We are working to create an atmosphere that no such incident happens,” he said even as he noted that “chhitput” (sporadic) incidents do happen at times.

In a swipe at the previous non-BJP governments, he said efforts were made earlier to buy temporary peace in Jammu and Kashmir while the change under Modi is that his dispensation wants to completely dismantle the “ecosystem” compromising of not only armed terrorists but also those who harboured and supported them.

It was after 34 years that the Ashura procession was allowed here during Muharram, he said to highlight changing scenario.