Its official ‘UT Foundation Day’ today in J&K, Omar Govt to abstain

Srinagar, Oct 30: For the second straight year, the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is all set to celebrate its Foundation Day on Thursday.

The day is being celebrated on October 31. The government had organized a series of functions and events as well as the competitions to celebrate the day last year.

This year also, the UT Foundation Day is being celebrated across J&K tomorrow for which the Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on last Sunday chaired a meeting to review the preparations for observance of J&K UT foundation day among other events at Raj Bhawan in Srinagar.

However, the parties in the government including National Conference (NC) and Indian National Congress (INC) stated that none of their leaders will be participating in the Union Territory Foundation Day in Jammu and Kashmir tomorrow; saying that they believe whatever has been snatched is unconstitutional.

Party's Chief Spokesman, Tanvir Sadiq said that the party has promised the revival of Darbar Move, which he stated was the legacy in J&K, adding that it is directly linked with the restoration of Statehood. “The efforts over the restoration of Statehood are on and we are hopeful that it will be restored at earliest and the Darbar Move will be revived thereafter.”

“The mandate given by the people is for five years and we will fulfill all the promises and guarantees made in the manifesto one by one. Every promise will be fulfilled including Article 370 and Article 35A. The work on this will be started at earliest,” Sadiq said.

Furthermore, the party chief spokesman informed the media persons that none among the leaders within the party will be attending the UT Foundation Day tomorrow. “We believe whatever has been snatched from us was unconstitutional and immoral. We want Statehood to be restored and no leader from the party will be attending the UT Foundation Day event,” he said.

Pertinently, the erstwhile Statehood was downgraded and divided into two Union Territories–J&K and Ladakh, by the centre on August 05, 2019 when the Articles 370 and 35A were removed.

Meanwhile, the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) President, Tariq Hameed Karra said that they will not attend to celebrate the occasion since the party has never recognised J&K as the Union Territory.

“How can we go and celebrate something, which has been arbitrarily, unconstitutionally and democratically thrust upon us. If they are glorifying it, but we cannot be a part of the glorification of injustice meted to us,” he said.