The Amarnath land dispute is finally settled. The Centre agreed on Sunday to “set aside 39.88 hectares of land for exclusive use by the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB)
SRINAGAR: The Amarnath land dispute is finally settled. The Centre agreed on Sunday to “set aside 39.88 hectares of land for exclusive use by the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB)”, after which the Shri Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti (SASS) spearheading the struggle for restoration of the land to SASB suspended its two-month-long agitation in Jammu.
“This is a victory for the people of Jammu. The government has agreed to set aside 39.88 hectares of land at Baltal and Domail for use by SASB for the yatra period,” SASS spokesman Narendra Singh said.
But the solution did not come easy. It took four rounds of talks and six hours of hectic negotiations to break the deadlock. The agreement was reached after night-long negotiations between a four-member SASS team led by Brig (retd) Suchit Singh and a four-member government panel headed by the governor’s advisor Sudhir Singh Bloeria.
The government panel submitted its proposal to the SASS team after three hours of initial talks, after which the Samiti held an emergency meeting of its core committee around midnight. The meeting discussed the proposal threadbare and even sought legal opinion. Later, the SASS team had another round of talks with the government panel, before both the parties signed on the dotted line at around 4.30 am.
SASS told reporters after the “victory” that all the core issues raised by it had been solved but there were certain other that needed to be addressed before it called off its stir. “There are issues relating to the transfers of SP Samba and DC Poonch. The victims of police atrocities and the businessmen who suffered losses due to the agitation also need to be compensated. The government has sought time and we have, therefore, suspended the agitation,” Narendra Singh said.
The most important aspect of the agreement is that it upholds the right of SASB to organise the Amarnath pilgrimage and make arrangements for it on both routes under the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Act, 2000.
A statement issued by SASS president Leela Karan Sharma and Bloeria after the pact read, “The yatris have been welcomed with open arms by the people of both Jammu and Kashmir. Sadly, certain decisions of the state government relating to the yatra created misunderstandings, which led to the agitation and loss of many precious lives.”
Soon after the news of the agreement broke, the people of Jammu took to the streets bursting crackers and dancing to drumbeats.
The Kashmir coordination committee rejected the pact.
h_ishfaq@dnaindia.net
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