Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Friday raised the issue of restoring the full state status of Jammu and Kashmir on the occasion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the occasion of flagging off the first train for Kashmir.
Abdullah said, “There are four persons on this platform who were present at the time of the inauguration of Katra railway station (in 2014). You came after winning the election, became Prime Minister for the first time. At that time, Minister of State (MOS) Jitendra Singh was present in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and our Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha Saheb was performing his responsibility as Minister of State for Railways and I was here as Chief Minister.
He said, “If you see, Sinha has got promotion with the blessings of Mata (Vaishno Devi) and I was demonstrated. I was the Chief Minister of a state earlier and now I am the Chief Minister of Union Territory. However, I believe that it will not take much time to fix it …. Jammu and Kashmir will get state status again during your tenure. ”The erstwhile state was reorganized in the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh after canceling Article 370 in August 2019.
Abdullah said that many people had dreamed of running a train in Kashmir. He said, “The British had also dreamed of connecting Kashmir with rail, but they could not succeed. His plan was to bring rail from Uri on the banks of Jhelum and connect it with the country. The work that the British could not do, it was your (Modi) hands and Kashmir joined the rest of the country.
Abdullah paid tribute to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to declare the train a project of national importance till Kashmir. He said, “If I do not thank former Prime Minister Vajpayee, it will be a big mistake. The project was undoubtedly started in 1983-84 … but it was fulfilled only when Vajpayee declared it a project of national importance and made a provision in the budget.