People’s Democratic Party (PDP) patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has said the road to peace, stability, progress and prosperity in South Asia passes through Jammu & Kashmir.
Addressing a function organized in connection with the joining of Lok Jan Shakti (LJP) and BSP leaders from Jammu region in PDP here on Wednesday, Sayeed said amicable settlement of the problem of Jammu & Kashmir offers the only opportunity to India and Pakistan to co-exist peacefully.
He said Jammu & Kashmir, in recent years has shown the way forward and it is for New Delhi and Islamabad to respond positively to the people's yearning for peace and a permanent settlement of the issue.
The PDP founder said continuation of the historic peace process set off on 18th April 2003 by the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and carried on by his successor Dr Manmohan Singh was a historical necessity. "Neither country could afford to go back on it, nor would Kashmir issue disappear by whatever else happens around it," he said.
Referring to the internal dimension of the problem of Jammu & Kashmir, Sayeed said there were important and well-defined issues to be resolved between the State and the Union. "Most of them had been covered by the Working Groups constituted by the Prime Minister," he said but still some are left unheard.
Mufti said the current crisis on economic, financial and infrastructure fronts confronting the State couldn’t be met with small-time responses of the Government. He said patchworks can't improve the quality of life of the State's people and the larger issue of exploitation of State's water and land resources has to be addressed to take care of the State's development needs in the 21st century.
The PDP patron said all regions of the State are facing economic deprivation because of wanton exploitation of our water and natural resources. He said economic empowerment of the common people including our youth can be achieved only if we have a free and unlimited access to our own resources.
Unfortunately, this has been discouraged in J&K and instead our water resources were usurped by the Central government, first in the 1950s under the Indus Water Treaty and later during the last National Conference regime that signed away all the major identified power projects mostly on Chenab and Jehlum to the NHPC, he said.
"This unimaginative action has now rendered the State to economic destitution with the Doda and Kishtwar districts today facing a double-edged weapon," he said and demanded review of all such actions that are detrimental to the State's economic interests.
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