‘Suggestions made by us can’t be substitute for K- settlement’
Srinagar: The team of interlocutors, appointed by New Delhi to finds political solution to Kashmir imbroglio, arrived in Jammu Friday to begin the weeklong visit to Jammu and Kashmir.
As per the itinerary schedule of the delegates, the interlocutors will spend four days in Jammu division while the three days have been kept for Kashmir.
Official sources told that the chief interlocutor, journalist Dileep Padgaonkar and economist M.M. Ansari arrived this afternoon in winter capital while academician Radha Kumar could not come and may join the team tomorrow.
Soon after their arrival, they said, the Interlocutors interacted with a group of media men. During the conversation, the chief interlocutor Dileep Padgaonkar said that the team would try to evolve a broad consensus on political settlement of Jammu and Kashmir.
“We are here to fulfill our mandate and the mandate is to focus tightly on trying to evolve a broad consensus on political settlement of Jammu and Kashmir,†he said, correspondent from Jammu said.
Padgaonkar rejects media reports suggesting that he criticized Omar Abdullah. He also refuted the report regarding praising the PDP’s Self-Rule and clarified that all he has said, “we have two documents-one produced by National Conference on Autonomy and the other produced by PDP on Self-rule.â€
He said their purpose of meeting the people was to ask them to come up with detailed suggestions to facilitate a political settlement acceptable to all the three regions of the State and the communities living in each region.
Padgaonkar said that after their two visits, they have made a number of recommendations. Certain numbers of them have to be implemented by Central Government after vetting. “Certain numbers of them have to be implemented by the state government,†he said.
“Today we are in Jammu and tomorrow, we will be going to Poonch and Rajouri and meeting whole range of people there,†he said. He said at the end of the visit they will meet media and give their impression.
To a question about the recommendations made by the interlocutors, he said, “all of them have been published in the newspapers. These recommendations were in the nature of CBMs. I do not think they can be a substitute for a political settlementâ€, he said.
“In order to facilitate a dialogue a certain number of CBMs are required. Accordingly, we made certain suggestions and the Government of India has been looking at them with great sympathy. We are convinced that these are going to be implemented,†he said.
They panel will proceed towards Poonch tomorrow morning during which they would interact with various sections of the society.
On next day, December 19, the interlocutors are secluded to meet people from different walks of life in district Rajouri. On December 20, the panel would return back to Jammu and would leave for Srinagar on next day, December 21. They would return back to New Delhi on December 23.
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