Lawmakers concerned over J&K situation

A section of Parliamentarians on Monday voiced concerns over the situation in Jammu and Kashmir during the meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs here.

Parliamentary sources said that members voiced concern over reports of closure of schools, shortage of medicines and incarceration of political leaders in Jammu and Kashmir after the reading down of Article 370 that granted special status to the state.

Last month, Parliament passed a law scrapping the special status of J&K and bifurcating the state into two Union Territories of namely Jammu & Kashmir, and Ladakh.

“Members also raised important issues on the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh and NRC in Assam,” a statement from the Rajya Sabha Secretariat said.

The recently constituted Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, chaired by senior Congress leader Anand Sharma, held its first meeting on Monday.

The committee has selected topics, including the management of worsening traffic in Delhi, increasing crimes in the national capital region, National Register of Citizens in Assam and the role of National Disaster Response Force in mitigating recent floods for examination and report.

Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla made presentations on the functioning of the ministry and the Constitution (125th Amendment) Bill pertaining to the Finance Commission.

The meeting was attended by Arvind Kumar, Director Intelligence Bureau; Rajesh Ranjan, Director General, Central Industrial Security Force; Y C Modi, Director, National Investigation Agency among others.