UT Phase is Temporary: Omar Abdullah

Srinagar : Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday said the government is committed to fulfill the promises made with the people and that statehood must restored sooner as promised by the Government of India.

Addressing a press conference at SKICC, Omar Abdullah, as per news agency, said that promises made to the people of Jammu and Kashmir will be fulfilled by his government and the process has already started on multiple issues while many others can be fulfilled only after statehood is restored.

He said that the people, who turned up in huge numbers during recent polls, have been praised, and now it is the time to give them the benefits. “We will abide by our promises and the biggest responsibility is to respect the people’s mandate,” he said.

“It has been more than two months now after formation of new government. I was expecting a lot of difficulties, but we didn’t face much. It took time to understand the powers vested with the elected government and Raj Bhawan. We are still understanding it,” he said.

He added that Jammu and Kashmir as Union Territory is temporary and will not last long. “The Government of India in the Supreme Court, during Article 370 hearing, has assured that statehood will be restored as soon as possible. A year has elapsed since and I think ‘as soon as possible’ period is enough and statehood should be restored,” he said.