Valley interlocutors to submit report within a year

The three-member panel formed by the government to hold 'sustained dialogue' with the people of Jammu and Kashmir including separatists is expected to submit its report within a year.

While the terms and references were being framed for the three-member panel comprising leading journalist Dileep Padgaonkar, noted academician Radha Kumar and Information Commissioner M M Ansari, sources in the Union home ministry said the group was expected to submit its report within a year.

The ministry has prepared a set of all agreements and Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir and will hand over it to the three members soon, the sources said.

The agreements include the Instrument of Accession, 1952 Delhi Agreement, 1975-accord and other relevant documents pertaining to the state.

The sources said the terms and references will be framed in consultation with the members of the panel. The much-awaited and much-hyped panel has already come under severe criticism from political and separatist groups in the state with Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front calling it as a joke while Hurriyat Conference also flaying it.

No political personality figures in the group, contrary to widespread speculation that a politician with the status of a Union cabinet minister would head it.

Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh and two Union Ministers of state Prithviraj Chavan and Salman Khursheed are believed to have been sounded but they appeared to be disinterested, highly-placed sources said.

The interlocutors will be in Jammu and Kashmir for one week each month, the sources said.