Ordinance to protect Kashmir's Hindu temples being readied

Jammu, April 19 (IANS) The Jammu and Kashmir government is all set to issue an ordinance to protect Hindu temples in the Kashmir Valley, a demand that Kashmiri Pandit migrants had been raising since their migration from Kashmir in the 1990s, according to official sources here.

The sources told IANS Thursday that Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has directed the Revenue Department to prepare a note for promulgation of an ordinance for the protection and management of temples in the Kashmir Valley.

'You should come up with a note on the subject as early as possible for the clearance of the cabinet so that the same would be presented to the governor for promulgation of the ordinance accordingly,' he told the department adding that the bill in this regard would be tabled in the next session of the legislature in Srinagar subsequently.

A senior official present in the meeting told IANS that Omar issued these directions while chairing a meeting of the Apex Advisory Committee for Kashmiri Migrants here.

The chief minister also directed the setting in motion of a process for the creation of additional 3,000 posts for Kashmiri migrant students. He stressed on early action in this regard and asked for the status of any waiting list of candidates who had appeared for the posts already advertised and filled up.

The chief minister said the posts that have fallen vacant due to de-reservation and those left unfilled out of the 3,000 vacancies advertised along with any waiting list of applicants with recruitment agencies should be ascertained early. 'I want complete details in the shortest possible time in this regard,' he directed the Revenue Department, stressing on early filling up of the vacant posts, the official disclosed.