Victory for PDP in Shrine land issue: Mehbooba

Srinagar, Jun 29: The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti said the move to handover the responsibilities of the Amarnath pilgrimage to state government, from the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) was a move in the right direction and it is a victory for her party.

''It was a victory for our party as we have been demanding that the responsibilities of the annual Yatra be given to state government,'' she said after chairman of the SASB, Governor N N Vohra wrote a letter to Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad if his government was ready to take the Yatra arrangements.

She claimed that this decision was taken after her party withdrew support from the Congress led coalition government, reducing it to minority in the 87-member house. It was because of this pressure the government decided to take the control of the Yatra from the SASB, she claimed.

She said the transfer of land to SASB issue will automatically be over when the state takes over the Yatra arrangements.

Ms Mehbooba said the decision to withdraw from the ministry was not taken in haste as being alleged.

We cannot remain indifferent to peoples suffering, she said adding the decision was taken in the best interest of restoration of peace in the valley.

However, the PDP spokesperson Syed Basharat Bukhari demanded that the land transfer to SASB order should be immediately revoked.

We welcome this move as we were from the beginning demanding that government should take over the responsibility of the annual pilgrimage, PDP spokesperson told the sources.

He said the government should immediately revoke the land transfer order without any further delay.

About the withdrawal from the ministry and also support to Congress led coalition government, he said it was final.

Our first priority was how to restore peace in the valley, he said.

UNI