New Delhi | Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday assured the Kashmiri delegation that “only government land would be used to establish industries, hospitals and educational institutions”.
Amit Shah met a delegation of 100 people from Kashmir after the scrapping of Article 370 in the state. The delegation, comprised of sarpanches (village heads) and members of civil society groups.
He said assured them that “nobody’s land would be taken away”.
The village heads, who were elected last year, demanded security, with some of them from south Kashmir still living in hotels in Srinagar under police protection as they have not been able to go back to their villages.
Mr. Shah also assured the delegation that communication services, including Internet, would be restored in the Valley in the next 20-25 days.
He also promised that job recruitment would begin at the earliest.
The participants were selected by the office of Baseer Khan, the divisional commissioner of Kashmir, and flown to Delhi on Tuesday morning.
A member of the delegation who did not wish to be identified said shopkeepers were scared to open their shops.
“People are scared. Some shops used to open in the evening hours, but police came and told them that if they cannot open their shops during the day then they won’t be allowed to operate in the evening. This is why civil curfew has been imposed by people,” the member said, as reported by TheHindu.
“The meeting with the Home Minister went on for 40 minutes. Most of the sarpanches spoke about micro issues, no one raised the issue of clampdown. The Home Minister told the sarpanches that he will make Kashmir a place where they don’t need security at all,” another member said.
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