Jammu, Aug 30 (IANS) Jammu and Kashmir’s Panthers Party Thursday said it would not meet the two former interlocutors arriving in Jammu Sunday for a three-day interaction with political parties and members of civil society over a report on the state.
Alleging that the report neglected the Jammu region, legislator and senior party leader Harshdev Singh said the interlocutors’ report “does not address the years of discrimination faced by the Jammu region and there is no mention about the concerns raised by us.”
“We raised with them the need for economic development of Jammu, delimitation of the assembly constituencies and reorganisation of the region, among many other concerns. The report does not mention any of these points and is focused only on Kashmir,” he said.
A panel of three interlocutors – senior journalist Dileep Padgaonkar, academician Radha Kumar, and former information commissioner M.M. Ansari – was formed in Oct 2010 to look into various issues concerning the state.
After extensive deliberations with various political parties, the state government and members of civil society, the team submitted a report to the central government in Oct 2011.
Currently, former interlocutors Padgaonkar and Kumar are taking feedback from various political parties and members of civil society on the report, which will be later submitted to the union home ministry.
