Thaindian News

New Delhi, Aug 8 (IANS) The government has not taken any decision on the interlocutors report on Jammu and Kashmir submitted last year and is not planning any mechanism to implement the recommendations, Minister of State of Home Jitendra Singh said Wednesday.

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, Singh said the government has not taken any decision on the report filed by journalist Dileep Padgaonkar and academicians M.M. Ansari and Radha Kumar.

To another question, Singh said the recommendations made in the report have been uploaded in the home ministry website mha.nic.in “for the benefit of the public at large” and hard copies have been placed in the parliament library “for an informed debate”.

He said that “some comments have been received and a number of viewpoints also appeared in the press”.

To a question on how much had been spent on the group so far and the time taken by them, Singh said the ministry has “so far expended an amount of Rs.63.20 lakh for work relating to the interlocutors,” and the panel submitted the report on Oct 12, 2011, within a year of its appointment.

Among the recommendations of the interlocutors was that a constitutional committee review all central laws extended to Jammu and Kashmir and make permanent article 370 of the constitution that grants the state special status.

The panel had been tasked with ascertaining the views of the people on resolving the Kashmir tangle.

In its report, the interlocutors also noted that there was consensus in the border state that its distinctive status guaranteed by article 370 must be upheld. The report also said its erosion over the decades must be re-appraised to vest it with such powers as the state needs to promote the people’s welfare on its own terms.