World | India
Amarnath protesters seek 'better proposals'
The group spearheading the campaign for allocation of forest land to the Amarnath temple trust in the Kashmir Valley yesterday said it was ready to settle for "better proposals" after closed-door talks with the government over the land row.
- IANS
- Published: 00:02 July 31, 2008
Jammu: The group spearheading the campaign for allocation of forest land to the Amarnath temple trust in the Kashmir Valley yesterday said it was ready to settle for "better proposals" after closed-door talks with the government over the land row.
The Amarnath Yatra Sangrash Samiti (AYSS), a group of 30 Hindu outfits, is looking for "better proposals" on the land row, such as erecting buildings for Hindu pilgrims to the Amarnath cave shrine in south Kashmir, convenor of the Sangharsh Samiti Leela Karan Sharma told reporters.
Buildings for pilgrims at various places en route to the cave shrine from Jammu, according to sources, was the same proposal of the erstwhile coalition government headed by Ghulam Nabi Azad.
These buildings may include permanent structures as well, the sources said.
The government yesterday held a dialogue with the group that has been demanding the restoration of forest land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB), which manages the annual Amarnath pilgrimage.
As of the moment, Sharma said, the Sangarsh Samiti has sought "a congenial atmosphere for the dialogue to move further."
He said the AYSS wants the government to "set free all the people arrested during the Jammu agitation since July 1 and punish the officers responsible for alleged atrocities on the agitators."
The two senior government officers, principal secretary Anil Goswami, who is from Jammu, and director general of police, Kuldip Khoda, a Kashmiri Hindu, however, refused to divulge the details of their talks with AYSS leaders.
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