Seven mainstream parties of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday gave a formal shape to their recently cobbled alliance for the restoration of Article 370, electing National Conference’s Farooq Abdullah as its chairman and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti as vice-chairperson, and asserted that theirs was “not an anti-national” grouping.

Veteran CPM leader M Y Tarigami was elected as the convenor while Lok Sabha member from South Kashmir Hasnain Masoodi would be the coordinator of the conglomerate known as Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD).

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Sajjad Gani Lone of People’s Conference would be the spokesman for the amalgam.

After a meeting held at Mehbooba’s house, Abdullah, who turned 84 earlier this week, said the alliance is fighting for the restoration of special status to Jammu and Kashmir and is an “anti-BJP platform” and not an anti-national amalgam.

“I want to tell you that this is false propaganda by the BJP that the PAGD is anti-national. I want to tell them that this is not true. There is no doubt that it is anti-BJP, but it is not anti-national,” he told reporters here.

Abdullah alleged that the BJP has tried to break the federal structure through acts like the abrogation of Article 370 and dividing Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories.

“They have tried to destroy the Constitution of the country, they have tried to divide the nation, to break the federal structure which we saw what they did on August 5 last year,” the NC president said.

“I want to tell them that this (PAGD) is not an anti-national jamaat. Our aim is that the people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh should get their rights back. That’s where our battle is. Our battle is not for more than that,” he said.

Abdullah said the BJP was doing propaganda against the constituents of the PAGD in Jammu and elsewhere in the country.

“They are trying to divide us (people of Jammu Kashmir and Ladakh) in the name of religion. This attempt will not succeed. This is not a religious battle, this is a fight for our identity, and for that identity, we are standing together,” he said.

The amalgam, which met for the first time after its formation, will come out with a white paper within one month on governance in Jammu and Kashmir over the past one year since the abrogation of article 370, Lone told reporters after the meeting.

“The white paper will not be rhetoric. It will be based on facts and figures to present the reality to the people of Jammu and Kashmir and around the country…. An impression is being given that all the corruption had happened in Jammu and Kashmir,” Lone said.

The amalgam decided to hold its next meeting after a fortnight in Jammu, followed by a convention in Srinagar on November 17.

As a mark of defiance to the constitutional changes made by the Centre with respect to Jammu and Kashmir last year, the alliance adopted the flag of the erstwhile state as its symbol.

Panaji: Former Prime Minister late Indira Gandhi’s intervention in 1971, which had led to the resolution of the Cauvery water dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, could have been a model to emulate in order to amicably resolve the ongoing Mhadei interstate water dispute, AICC secretary in-charge of Goa Dinesh Gundu Rao said on Saturday.

Rao said Prime Minister Narendra Modi could have played the role of mediator in the river water sharing dispute between Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra, to resolve the issue faster and amicably.

“The other mechanism would have been the Prime Minister calling everyone and resolving the problem, if he has the capacity to do it. He did not do it,” Rao said.

At present, all three states have approached the Supreme Court to appeal against the provisions of the award given by a central government tribunal last in 2018.

Rao also cited former Prime Minister late Indira Gandhi’s intervention in 1971, which he said had led to the resolution between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka over the waters of the Mhadei river. “Indira Gandhi had settled the matter between the states,” Rao said.

The former state president of the Karnataka Congress party also said that when it comes to a sensitive and important issue like inter-state river water sharing, each state had to press for the rights of its people and political party affiliations should take a backseat. “Each state will have to fight for its own rights,” Rao said.

Mhadei, also known as the Mandovi river in Goa and Mahadayi in Karnataka, is considered a lifeline for the northern parts of Goa. It originates in Karnataka and meets the Arabian Sea in Panaji in Goa, while briefly flowing through Maharashtra.

While the river runs 28.8 km in Karnataka, it is over 50 km in length in the state Goa.

Goa and Karnataka are battling out a two decade-long dispute over the sharing of the Mhadei waters.

–IANS

New Delhi: Delhi University on late Saturday released the third cut-off list for its ongoing admission process.

Zakir Hussain College released the cut-off list first, followed by Aryabhatta College and Rajdhani College.

A marginal dip of only 0.5 per cent was seen in the third cut-off as compared to the second as the cut-off for BA Hons (Economics), for the General category, of Aryabhatta College stands at 95.75 per cent.

Rajdhani College’s cut-off for BA Hons (Economics) for the General category stands at 95 per cent.

The cut-off for BSc (Mathematics) in the third cut-off list is 93.25 per cent, 92 per cent for Chemistry and 88 per cent for Botany. Admissions to Zoology have been closed.

A total of 52,183 students have deposited their fees in Delhi University so far.

The first cut-off of 100 per cent created a buzz across the nation. However, cut-off for the courses like BA Hindi, Sanskrit, Punjabi, Urdu, Persian etc came down to 45 per cent in many colleges in the second and third list.

Professor Hansraj Suman, in-charge of the Delhi Teachers Association and a former member of the Delhi University Admission Committee, said: “Half of the students were worried after seeing the first cut-off. In some colleges, the cut-off was 100 per cent while in some it was 99 per cent. Now, some colleges have reduced the merit so as to get some admissions.”