Srinagar, Sep 10 (NVI) Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday said no Kashmiri Pandi employee recruited under the Prime Minister’s package is homeless in the Valley and defended the playing of the full version of ‘Vande Mataram’ at government functions, saying the administration is bound by its legal and statutory obligations.
Abdullah’s remarks came amid protests by PM package employees over transit accommodation and a political row over the rendition of the national song at the inaugural ceremony of the International Film Festival of Jammu and Kashmir at the SKICC here on September 7.
On the accommodation issue, the chief minister said construction of 6,000 transit flats has been expedited and asserted that no employee has been left without a roof over their head.
“A large chunk of the flats have already been allotted and the remaining are being completed in a phased manner,” he said.
PM package employees protesting at Press Colony in Srinagar have set September 30 as a deadline for allotment of pending accommodation and threatened to launch an indefinite hunger strike. They have also raised security concerns following alleged threat posters.
On the Vande Mataram row, Abdullah said government functions have to adhere to prescribed protocol and statutory obligations.
“NC has a clear stand. When Parliament has adopted it, playing Vande Mataram becomes a statutory obligation and that is what the government did. We have to fulfil our legal and statutory duties,” he said.
The chief minister said government protocol should be kept separate from party ideology.
The issue arose after J&K Congress president Tariq Hamid Karra objected to the playing of all six stanzas of Vande Mataram at the film festival, where Abdullah and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah were present.
The National Conference also cited instances of full renditions of the song at official functions in Congress-ruled states.
The BJP welcomed Omar and Farooq Abdullah’s participation in the full rendition of the song, while the Congress has maintained its position favouring the first two stanzas in keeping with its 1937 resolution aimed at maintaining communal harmony.—(NVI)
