J&K: DINESHWAR SHARMA TO HAVE A DIRECT LINE WITH RESIDENTS

NEW DELHI: Jammu and Kashmir residents will soon be able to directly get in touch with the Centre’s interlocutor for the state, Dineshwar Sharma, over the phone and through email, sources have told HT.

“Sharma’s office will soon announce a dedicated phone number and email address for registering complaints of Jammu and Kashmir residents,” a government official told HT on Wednesday.

The officer spoke on the condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to media.

Sharma will also have three officers as point persons for three regions of the state — the Kashmir Valley, Jammu, and Ladakh — to address the grievances of the local population. The officers, likely to be drawn from the state, would remain in touch with the J&K government to ensure that all grievances were addressed in a time-bound manner, they said.

When contacted, Sharma declined to offer his comments. In a month since his appointment, Sharma has visited the Valley and the Jammu region twice and spoken to groups of youth, women and traders.

“The delegations that met Sharma spoke about a lack of basic amenities like bijli and pani (electricity and water). Some asked for jobs. Harassment by police and other security forces was another major grievances,” said a home ministry official.

Sharma also managed to break ice with the Hurriyat Conference and met separatist leader Abdul Gani Bhat twice. Bhat is a former chairman of the All Party Hurriyat Conference and is now with the moderate faction of the separatist conglomerate led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.