NPP stages protest, demands statehood for Jammu region

Jammu, Oct. 26 (PTI): A day after the Centre appointed Girish Chander Murmu as the first Lt Governor of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir which comes into existence on October 31, the National Panthers Party (NPP) on Saturday staged a demonstration here and demanded statehood for the Jammu region. The NPP protesters, led by party chairman and former minister Harsh Dev Singh, shouted slogans like "Lt Governor go back and Dogra state ka darja bahal karo (restore the statehood of the Dogra state of Jammu and Kashmir)" at the exhibition ground here. On August 5, the Centre scrapped the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and announced its bifurcation into two Union Territories -- Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. Raising slogans against the BJP, Singh said the Centre had caused the "greatest embitterment in the hearts and minds of the people" by downgrading the Jammu and Kashmir's status of statehood to a Union Territory. "The demotion of the state to the level of UT was not only unprecedented but amounted to a great insult hurled upon the patriotic people of the Jammu region. The BJP had contemptuously mocked the historic decision of Maharaja Hari Singh who acceded the state of J and K to the Union of India by executing the instrument of Accession on October 26, 1947. The people feel humiliated, disparaged and offended," the NPP leader said.