BJP for re-organisation of J and K on provincial basis

Jammu, May 24 (UNI) The BJP today said it stands for the re-organisation of Jammu and Kashmir on provincial basis, as it is the only way to help people of this region get their dues.

Reacting to the idea of the division of the state as mooted by people's conference Chief Sajjad Lone, BJP state president Ashok Khajuria said, ''BJP wants the Union Government to grant three definite political instruments one each for Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh invested with legislative, administrative and financial powers.'' He said such an approach alone could help the people of Jammu to meet their specific needs and compulsions.

On Mr Lone's idea, the state BJP president said it was all at the instance of the UPA government, which appears determined to accommodate Muslim communalism and hit at the very secular roots of the Indian polity.

He said, ''the BJP will under no situation allow new delhi to either accept the Pakistan President's four-point communal and divisive formula or give effect to any such solution as is aimed at pitting the followers of one religion against the other or dividing the state on sectarian lines.'' The BJP, Mr Khajuria said, is not at all surprised over Sajjad Lone s suggestion that the state be trifurcated into Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh states and that the Muslim-majority areas of Jammu and Lladakh be given the option of joining Kashmir.

''What (Sajjad) Lone has, infact, suggested is what the National Conference has all along stood for and what Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah, at the behest of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has suggested to surmount the so-called Kashmir Problem,'' he added.

UNI