Rajnath Singh reviews security in J&K, meets civil society

Srinagar: Home minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday held a series of meetings with Jammu & Kashmir chief minister, government functionaries and officials from the security forces to take stock of the prevailing law and order situation in the state and to review the status of various ongoing projects, particularly those being executed under the Prime Minister’s Development Package (PMDP).

Mr Singh, who is on a four-day visit to the state, and CM Mehbooba Mufti discussed “Agenda of the Alliance” (AoA), the framework of the PDP-BJP coalition at their one-on-one meeting.

An official spokesman said that the chief minister underscored the need to reach out to all sections, time-bound implementation of the AoA besides seeking regular funding for PMDP.  

An official released said that the home minister and the chief minister recognised the need for timely implementation of the AoA which “provides a definite roadmap to resolve the problems confronting the state”.  

The two reviewed the implementation of the Rs 80,000 crore PMDP in the state.

The meeting was informed 63 projects have been taken up under PMDP and out of the total outlay, Rs 21,988 crore has been released.

Soon after his arrival in Srinagar, Mr Singh met governor. N.N. Vohra at Raj Bhavan here and held separate meetings with leaders and representatives of various mainstream political parties, social and trade groups and civil society activists to know their views on the issues confronting the state.  

The separatist leadership was not made part of the exercise even though the home minister had said in New Delhi on Friday that he was going to J&K with an “open mind”.

He had said, “I am going with an open mind. I personally want that we talk to everyone. So whoever comes to meet me, I will talk to them.”

The visit takes place at a time when raids and arrests by the National Investigating Agency (NIA), which is probing alleged terror funding in the state, have set off fresh tension between the government and separatists.

While separatist patriarch Syed Ali Shah Geelani continues to be under house arrest for several months, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik were again on Friday night placed under house arrest and taken into prevention custody, respectively. The three had planned to fly to Delhi on Saturday to court arrest at the NIA headquarters to counter the agency’s “harassment” of the people associated or sympathising with the Kashmiris’ “freedom struggle.”