J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah cited the coalition government in his state as proving a key hurdle for revoking of the Disturbed Areas Act, a prelude to the removal of AFSPA.
“I run a coalition government in which Congress is an ally of mine. They are also the single largest constituent of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) at the Centre. Clearly, for me to do anything in the state, I need a majority of my own or I need to take Congress on board. and that is what I am trying to do,” said Mr Abdullah.
Mr Abdullah, who has been advocating the withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from some parts of J&K, expressed confidence that this issue should get resolved in the near future. “We understand that you cannot overnight take it (AFSPA) away. It has to be a gradual process. It has to start with those areas where the Army is no longer required to operate,” he said. “There are also areas where Army has not operated for a number of years. In such places, the AFSPA is not required,” the chief minister said.
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Pacts on linking cities, water
Age Correspondent
New Delhi, May 20
India welcomed Chinese enterprises to invest in India and participate in India’s infrastructure development. The two sides also agreed to enhance the project contracting cooperation between the businesses of the two countries.
Another agreement signed by external affairs minister Salman Khurshid and his Chinese counterpart Minister Wang Yi will make further improvements to the existing facilities for Kailash Mansarovar pilgrims including providing them with wireless sets and local SIM cards.
Another pact under which China will provide information of water level, discharge and rainfall twice a day from June 1st to October 15th each year in respect of three hydrological stations on the mainstream Brahmaputra river was also inked.
Another pact was signed to facilitate cooperation and linkages between cities and provinces of the two countries. Both sides agreed to identify “sister cities” and “sister states/provinces” for enhancing greater people-to-people contacts.
An MoU was signed between India’s water resources ministry and China’s National Development and Reform Commission for cooperation in ensuring water efficient irrigation.
Both sides decided to coordinate translation and publication of 25 books of classic and contemporary works of each side over five years.