New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Satya Pal Singh on Saturday said the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill was required for the complete integration of the new Union Territory with the rest of India.
Supporting the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2021, Malik said the amendment was extremely important for both the development and the integration of the Union Territory with the rest of India.
Singh said he was proud that the Narendra Modi-led government in 2019 revoked the erstwhile state of its special status under Article 370 of the Constitution.
"The mover snatched away the sleep of separatists, terrorists, and Pakistanis," he said, adding that the union territory has witnessed remarkable work in infrastructure and education in the past 18 months.
He also stressed that laws which were once enacted in the rest of the country, were never enacted in the erstwhile state.
Acts like POCSO, RTI, RTE, prevention of child marriage, damage to public property and laws related to forests were never implemented in J&K, which spelt disaster for the erstwhile state.
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"Public property in the state was destroyed, but lack of central laws meant no restitution. For uniformity with rest of the country, this Bill is required," he said.
Singh in his speech said that he wanted to allay the fears of Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who had earlier questioned the amendments, and the promises made by the BJP in J&K.
"Under the All India Services, J&K had a provision to have 50 per cent locals, unlike the rest of the country where a provision of 33 per cent for locals exists."
J&K bureaucrats used to come under pressure of local politicians, as they knew their entire career would be under them due to non-transferability outside the state.
Singh also said that he felt both proud and sad when he thought about Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
"J&K was a teerth bhoomi. But in the 13th century, sultans entered the fray and drove out the non-Muslims. From 100% four hundred years ago, now there are only 10% non-Muslims. What never happened in 1000 years, happened in the reign of the Congress, Muftis, and the Abdullahs,' he said.
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On Adhir Chowdhury's question to the Centre over the BJP's promises to the Kashmiri Pandit community, Singh accepted: "We still have not been able to provide complete justice to Kashmiri Pandits. "
"It is very sad, despite the exodus, massacre, and rapes, nobody was ever prosecuted even in a single case," he added.
