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Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar
The new economic package for Jammu and Kashmir announced by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Srinagar on Thursday at the end of his three-day visit to the state has evoked a mixed response from the people.
Expressing his unhappiness at the package, All-Parties Hurriyat Conference leader Prof Abdul Gani Bhat said, "The people of Kashmir have offered supreme sacrifices not for a road to be built between Manali and Ladakh or a rail track from Udhampur to Baramulla."
"We want a permanent settlement of the dispute of Jammu and Kashmir in the interest of all the people of South Asia," Bhat said.
Bhat reacting to the prime minister's offer of talks said, "He has his own agenda and has chosen not to consider the agenda of APHC. We will have to rise above traditional positions. We can never achieve a breakthrough. To achieve a breakthrough Pakistan will have to be necessarily involved in the process."
Bhat added that the only way for India and Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir issue was to start a dialogue process.
Ghulam Hassan, a graduate, however, feels that the package may create jobs for the unemployed youth in Kashmir. "The package should benefit the poor and deserving. Otherwise it is useless," he said.
One of the district presidents of the ruling National Conference, A R Shaheen, welcomed the economic package announced by the prime minister.
However, he said, that the Centre would have to restore the 'eroded autonomy of the state' for any kind of political process to take off.
"We are not demanding either Pakistan or Azadi. We only want the restoration of autonomy to the Jammu and Kashmir," he said.
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