Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday expressed hope that Jammu and Kashmir’s Union Territory status is a temporary phase and the central government will fulfill its promise of restoring its statehood.
“It’s been a little more than two months since we came to power. It took us time to understand how the Union Territory government works,” Abdullah said while talking to the media at the Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Center (SKICC). We have been associated with the government earlier also, but there is a lot of difference between that form and the present form.”
The Chief Minister said the new government had a “decent” start and he “did not face much difficulty”.
Abdullah said, “We are bound by our election promises. We have started the process of implementing some promises and for other promises we need a change in the system. I hope that Jammu and Kashmir will become a union territory.” It’s a temporary phase.”
He said, “We are now hopeful that the promises made to us will be fulfilled. The biggest promise is to restore statehood. The Supreme Court had also said in its decision that statehood should be restored as soon as possible.” One year has passed and we feel that one year should be enough.”
Abdullah said that people’s sentiments should be respected and their aspirations should be fulfilled. Addressing journalists, the Chief Minister called it a conversation and not a press conference.
“We are not making any major announcement as was being speculated on social media. We just wanted to have a conversation. We will try to answer your questions,” he said.
He said, ‘I would like to have such conversations at least twice a year without any agenda.’
