India wants good relations with Pakistan and an environment of mutual confidence and friendship will be beneficial for Jammu and Kashmir.
India wants good relations with Pakistan and an environment of mutual confidence and friendship will be beneficial for Jammu and Kashmir, prime minister Manmohan Singh said here on Thursday.
The prime minister conveyed this assessment to J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah during their 30-minute meeting, the first after the National Conference leader took over the reins of the government in January this year.
The two leaders discussed in detail the development issues in the border state during which they touched upon the dialogue process between India and Pakistan, an official spokesman said here.
Omar supported the prime minister's stand that India and Pakistan should have good neighbourly relations and said he favoured resumption of their bilateral dialogue at the earliest, the spokesman said.
The prime minister observed that the state would progress in an environment of friendship between India and Pakistan, the spokesman said in a release.
Omar briefed the Prime Minister about the law and order situation in the state and said his government was satisfied with the action taken by the Army against its own personnel in the Bomai incident.
The chief minister assured Singh that the security forces were committed in ensuring his commitment of zero tolerance on human rights violations.
During the meeting, the prime minister has expressed his desire to make Jammu and Kashmir a model state of the country and said after the Lok Sabha elections, a comprehensive plan for accelerated development of the state would be formulated.
Dwelling at length on the issue of development plans for Jammu and Kashmir, the prime minister called for prioritizing health and education sectors.
Omar briefed the prime minister about vital development issues and requested him to consider the Rs 6,500-crore draft annual plan proposed for the year 2009-10 by the state government.
He also discussed the issue of extension of prime minister's Reconstruction Plan (PMRP) till the end of Eleventh Plan in 2011-12.
Regarding the Mughal Road Project, which also falls under PMRP, the CM told the prime minister that the revised project estimate of Rs 634.85 crore, raised from Rs 255 crore, needs to be funded by the Central government on a 100 per cent basis.
At present, the project is shared on a 50:50 basis between the Centre and the state government.
Omar also sought intervention of the prime minister for a similar revision of the Rs 298.76-crore Conservation and Management Plan for Dal-Nagin Lake in Srinagar under the National Lake Conservation Plan and demanded an additional amount of Rs 356 crore for acquisition of land, structures within the lake and purchase of lake cleaning machines.
He said rehabilitation and resettlement of the lake dwellers were not included in the project for which additional funds are required.
Omar also sought release of Rs 1,170 crore for the current fiscal as part of the Power Reforms Grant, a special dispensation given by the Central government, saying the same has not been released yet.
Requesting its early release, Omar said the state is in the midst of improvement process for power infrastructure and demanded that the reforms grant should be continued for the next six years.
The prime minister later observed that Jammu and Kashmir is woefully short of power, especially in winter.
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