Centre should provide 'concrete offers' to restore order in Jammu

New Delhi, Aug 4 (UNI) The BJP today felt that the Centre should come out with a 'concrete offer' restoring the land to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) for building pilgrimage infrastructure if it wants to restore normalcy in the trouble-torn Jammu region.

Asked by reporters what could bring back the peace and order in Jammu, BJP General Secretary Arun Jaitley said a 'concrete offer', which can satisfy the people of Jammu, should come out from the Centre, in which case the BJP too would be willing to consider lending its support. In any case the party had issued a general appeal to the people to carry out a peaceful agitation and refrain from indulging in violence, he said.

The BJP's comments came in the wake of Congress president Sonia Gandhi calling BJP president Rajnath Singh seeking his party's intervention to restore peace and order to end the over one-month long agitation seeking restoration of 100 acre of land to SASB.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, too, had held discussions with Leader of Opposition L K Advani to end the impasse especially when the elections in Jammu and Kashmir is on the anvil and the Lok Sabha elections, which are to be held before May 2009.

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