NC pledges to foil attempts against JK's special status

The National Conference on Thursday pledged to foil conspiracies being hatched to fiddle with the special identity and singular entity of Jammu and Kashmir.

"Those nurturing wild dreams of trifurcating the state or tinkering with its special status are destined to fail, as the people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh are determined to frustrate all their attempts with their full might," NC General Secretary Ali Mohammed Sagar said.

Addressing senior functionaries and party delegates in Poonch, the former minister also cautioned against the machinations being engineered to weaken the party, which he claimed is a bold voice of the people of the state and a binding force between the regions and the communities living in harmony for centuries.

"To achieve their malicious agenda, anti-people and anti-poor elements are being encouraged to cause divisions and wedge between the people," he claimed without identifying the conspirators but exhorted the party cadre to remain vigilant against their "nefarious designs".

The general secretary called for further strengthening the party at the grassroots level to meet the challenges facing the state.

"The recent victory in the parliamentary elections reflects the urges of the people to have a strong government which can uphold the political aspirations and undertake holistic development across the state with equal opportunities of progress to all," he said urging the cadre to get prepared for the assembly elections, whenever held in near future.

"In the midst of myopic politics based on religion, NC stands tall for its unflinching commitment to secularism and single entity of the state," Sagar said while recalling the crucial role played by the party before and after 1947 in promoting and sustaining Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist and Christian unity.

Emphasising on the need for closing ranks and girding up loins for the assembly elections, Provincial President Devender Singh Rana said National Conference is all set to script a historic victory and form the government on its own.

"NC alone can steer the state to peace and prosperity," Rana said, adding that the people of the state have made up their mind to have a stable government that can end the era of developmental and administrative inertia of the past few years.

To achieve equitable development of all the regions and their sub-region, setting up of regional councils will have to be accorded top priority, he added.

Addressing the workers, former minister Mian Altaf Ahmed spelt out the initiatives taken by the NC for the upliftment of marginalised segments including Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes, Other Backward Classes and weaker sections of the society.

"NC has been an umbrella of poor, who got empowered, be it the revolutionary land to tiller or devolution of power at the grassroots level to involve them in the decision making," Altaf said and stressed the need for generating massive awareness about the policies and programmes of the party.