No need to enter into credit-taking competition: Azad

Srinagar, July 7 (UNI) Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad today said the credit for recent historic decisions by the state Cabinet goes only to the people and there was no need for anyone to enter into any competition.

''We need not enter into any competition for taking credit for the recent historic Cabinet decisions,'' Mr Azad said after laying the foundation stone of the Rangil mega water supply project at Pandach in Ganderbal area.

He congratulated the people for creation of a new district of Ganderbal, saying the coalition government had taken the decision to fulfill the long-pending demands.

The Chief Minister said the credit for creation of new districts, sub-divisions and tehsils goes only to the people. ''They had been suffering a lot on this count as district, sub-division and tehsil headquarters were miles away,'' he added.

Mr Azad said the mandate of the people to their representatives was a clear indication that respective manifestos of the coalition partners were to be implemented in letter and spirit in the form of a Common Minimum Programme (CMP).

Addressing the demands of the people from Safapora area, he said these were emerging from different parts of the state.

''For this purpose, a commission is being constituted which will earmark the jurisdiction of districts, sub-divisions and tehsils. It will visit the entire state and submit its reports to the government within six months,'' Mr Azad added.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the ruling coalition partner in Jammu and Kashmir, had in a statement on July 7, taken the credit for the state Cabinet's decision to announce the creation of four new districts in the Valley.

''If the Wazir Commission was implemented, Kulgam, Shopain and Ganderbal could never have got the district status. It was only through the efforts of the PDP leadership that these towns were incorporated in the list,'' a PDP spokesman said in a statement.

However, the spokesman then went on to say that it was due to the joint efforts of the PDP and the Congress leadership that both the regions got equal share in the creation of new districts.

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