BJP slams UPA over Amarnath issue

New Delhi, Aug 11 (UNI) Terming the initiative by the Centre over the simmering Amarnath issue 'insufficient and belated', the BJP today made it categorically clear to the Manmohan Singh government that Shri Amarnath Shrine Board should be empowered to make all arrangements for the Yatris and land should be restored to it.

The party slammed the UPA government for the continuous violence in Jammu for the past 41 days, saying it had failed to give a 'convincing' reply to the people of the country about why the land allotted once by the Jammu and Kashmir government, was taken back.

Talking to mediapersons, BJP spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy expressed serious concern over the attempt made by the PDP and others to cross over the border to reach Muzaffarabad in Pak-occupied-Kashmir. ''PDP is a partner in the UPA government and it is a serious matter,'' he said.

Mr Rudy also charged that UPA was keeping some partners at the cost of national and economic interests of the country. ''Such partners were growing at the cost of the country,'' he alleged.

He said the Prime Minister must come clear how the UPA's two partners -- Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal -- supported 'SIMI', an outfit perpetrating terrorism and subscribing to Taliban mindset.

Meanwhile, thousands of BJP workers across the country courted arrests on the first day of its three-day jail-bharo agitation to demand restoration of land to SASB, party sources claimed.

UNI KAS/MCN GL HT1725