PDP launches self rule campaign in J

Leh, Sep 27 (UNI) The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a ruling alliance in the Jammu and Kashmir, said self rule is the only feasible solution to the Kashmir issue.

PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said misconceptions initially spread about the concept of Self Rule in some parts of the state are slowly evaporating and people have started realising that it is the only solution which would empower them.

Ms Mufti, who is on a state-wide campaign to build public opinion on the party's Self Rule proposal, held wide-ranging consultations with the people from different sections of the society in Buddhist- dominated Ladakh.

During her interaction with members of the Leh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), Ms Mufti said for PDP, an implementable solution to the vexed Kashmir issue, as envisioned in Self Rule, means political and economic empowerment of the people and not the government.

''The devolution of political and economic powers, as a part of the solution, must trickle down to every region,'' she said adding any solution, worked out in isolation could never be ustainable and would brew more serious problems instead of resolving the same.

She said there is lack of trust, not only between the Center and the state, but amongst various regions within the state. An important element to resolve the imbroglio includes building bridges of trust between various regions.

The PDP president said Self Rule proposal envisages adequate constitutional guarantees for a lasting solution to the Kashmir issue.

She would as well suggest to the PDP's Drafting Committee to encompass, within the State Constitution, sufficient guarantees for intra-regional devolution of powers to do away with any apprehensions in this regard in various regions of the Jammu and Kashmir.

She said it handles both the political and economic aspects of the problem and suggests remedies for the same.

She said as part of the PDP's economic agenda, the party has been demanding economic integration of various parts of the state with the rest of the world by throwing open all traditional routes for free movement of people and goods.

Ms Mufti said while Srinagar-Muzaffarabad and Poonch-Rawalakote roads have already been opened, for restricted movement of people, the Government of India and Pakistan must now throw open these roads for free movement of people and goods along with opening up of the Kargil-Skardu, Leh-Tibet and Suchetgarh-Sialakote routes so that the region becoms a part of the booming regional and global trade.

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