Jammu, Aug 4 (Inditop.com) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday committed its support to a campaign for the opening of a central university in the Jammu region instead of the Kashmir valley.
“Our party will fully support the cause of opening the central university in Jammu region and be one of the groups in the amalgam carrying out the campaign in this regard,” BJP state unit chief Ashok Khajuria told reporters here.
Various student bodies have been holding a series of demonstrations demanding the immediate opening of a central university in the Jammu region.
After the union government announced that such a university will be established in Jammu and Kashmir, the state government had identified a place close to Samba near Jammu for the site of the institution. But later there was a proposal to open it in Kashmir.
“We will not let the location of university shift from Jammu. We are ready for an agitation, if required, after the completion of the Amarnath pilgrimage,” said the Shri Amarnath Yatra Sangharsh Samiti that had spearheaded a two-month-long protest last year for restoration of government land to the Amarnath shrine board.
Central University Andolan Samiti (CUAS), a group of various students’ and social organisations, had announced: “If the matter is not resolved by Aug 7, we are all set to start an agitation.”
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and a group of ministers met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal Monday. They requested that two central universities be set up in the state, one each for Jammu and Kashmir region, keeping in view the sensitivity of the issue.
