NEW DELHI, 16 November 2004 — Indian Prime Minister Manmohann Singh will visit Kashmir tomorrow to review the situation in the disputed Himalayan region, officials said.
The two-day trip to Kashmir will be the first by Manmohan since he assumed office in May.
Kashmir state’s Deputy Chief Minister Mangat Ram Sharma said Manmohan would hold meetings tomorrow in Srinagar, Kashmir’s summer capital, and fly to Jammu the next day.
In Jammu, the winter capital, he is scheduled to visit a camp for Hindu refugees displaced due to the insurgency, Sharma said.
The premier will address a public rally and meet military commanders on Thursday.
He will also hold talks with leaders of regional political groups.
The announcement came four days after Manmohan said he would reduce the number of troops deployed in Kashmir.
Manmohan has not specified the number to be withdrawn but sources say up to 6,000 “winter surplus” troops could be repositioned from the Himalayan heights.
Military experts estimate that some 200,000 security force members, including 60,000 combat troops on Kashmir’s borders with Pakistan, are battling the insurgency against Indian rule in the region which has claimed thousands of lives.
India, which administers the southern two-thirds of Kashmir, has fought two of its three wars with Pakistan over the territory since independence from British rule in 1947. Both sides claim the state in its entirety.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz will arrive in India on Nov. 23 for talks with Manmohan.
Meanwhile, India’s Foreign Minister Natwar Singh said yesterday the climate for dialogue with Pakistan over the disputed Kashmir region was conducive but warned against expecting any “miracle”.
New Delhi would give the second round of discussions with Pakistan — called the composite dialogue process and set to begin soon — its “best shot,” Singh told reporters in New Delhi.
Singh said there would be no set agenda for the discussions, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
“It (the dialogue) has been continuing for the last 57 years,” he said referring to talks to settle the row over the scenic Kashmir region, trigger of two of three wars between Pakistan and India since independence in 1947.
“So there will be no miracle,” he said. “We are looking in terms of realism and we are giving it our best shot.”
Singh’s remarks follow weekend comments by Manmohann Singh that both sides were “making some progress.”
Manmohan Launches Food-for-Work Drive to Combat Rural Hunger
Vast stocks of food are to be distributed across India in a government food-for-work drive to combat hunger in the nation of over one billion people.
The government plans to employ people on water conservation, irrigation, flood control and road-building projects in return for five kilograms (11 pounds) of foodgrain per day and a small sum of money.
The move is a main plank of the fledgling administration’s domestic policy and comes after reports of hundreds of suicides by farmers unable to feed their families in drought-hit rural areas. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh launched the program late Sunday, saying it was part of his Congress Party-led government’s election pledge “to liberate the country from poverty, hunger and unemployment”.
Initially, the 20-billion-rupee ($435 million) nationwide program will provide jobs to people in 150 rural districts hardest hit by drought or floods and then will be expanded.
“We’ll be releasing foodgrains in another 15 days after looking at requests by each state,” a senior government official told AFP. “The program will help create jobs in poverty-stricken states.”
