BJP calls Jammu bandh next week

The BJP today called for a shutdown in Jammu next Monday to protest against chief minister Omar Abdullah's recent remarks in the Legislative Assembly and also what it said discrimination of the region by the government.

"The bandh has been called to protest against chief minister's remarks that the state had only acceded with the Union of India and not merged with it," state BJP chief Shamsher Singh Manhas told reporters in Jammu.

He said they would also gherao Congress ministers on November eight, the day government offices, shifted from the summer capital to the winter capital as part of the Darbar move, would open in Jammu.

The shutdown was also called to protest "step-motherly being meted out to transporters, traders, businessmen and shopkeepers by the Centre and the NC-Congress government," the BJP state unit head said.

No compensation was given to them despite suffering huge losses during the land row stir in 2008 in Jammu, he said.

On the other hand, the government had announced relief of Rs5 lakh to each family whose member had died in stone-pelting during the turmoil in the Valley.

The government had also announced a Rs100 crore package for sufferers in the valley, Manhas said.

He said the time had come to send a stern message to the Kashmir-centric government that "enough is enough and the patience of Jammuites should not be tested".