Picture : You Tube/ Video Grab
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has said his hopes for restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir were fading as the issue drags on.
According to media reports The CM made these remarks while interacting with reporters in Srinagar, he was asked about his next step if statehood was not restored. To this, Abdullah said, “Let’s get to that point first. We will talk then.”
The chief minister refused to comment on a report which claimed that he would resign if statehood was not restored to Jammu and Kashmir within a finite timeline.
“I am not going to say anything about that. I have nothing more to say on that. The interviewer tried to ask me questions about that. If I did not answer her, what makes you think that I will answer you?” he added.
Abdullah said, “I was hopeful (about statehood restoration) from day one, but that hope is diminishing. But the longer this issue drags on, the hopes will fade. The longer you make us wait, the less hopeful we will be.”
The chief minister, however, said he was still hopeful that statehood would be restored to Jammu and Kashmir. “There still is some hopefulness there. If it happens within this hopefulness, it will be better,” he said.
In response to a question, he said that if there were no obstacles in governance in a Union territory set-up, every state would be asking for it.
“If there were no obstacles in governance in a UT set-up, am I mad to seek statehood? If it were easy in a UT, then all states would have sought to be a UT.
“There are issues which come to the fore. The department is under me, and I have to answer before the House, but the officer in the department is not of my choice. There are many examples. There are several institutions which should have been under the control of the elected government, but are still not with us,” the chief minister said.
