The Hindu : National : Kashmir officials to take part in bus talks

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Nov 30, 2004

National

National

Kashmir officials to take part in bus talks

By Amit Baruah

NEW DELHI, NOV. 29. Officials from the Tourism and Home Departments of Jammu and Kashmir will form part of the Indian team that will discuss "all issues" related to commencement of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service in New Delhi on December 7-8.

Earlier this year, Pakistan had denied visas to Jammu and Kashmir officials who were part of the Indian delegation that was to travel to Islamabad for the bus talks.

This had led to the cancellation of the scheduled discussions. According to sources in South Block, it was imperative that the State officials formed part of the team, to be led by a senior functionary from the Ministry of Road Transport, as they were crucial to kick-starting the bus service.

Pakistan, for its part, doesn't "recognise" the State Government in Kashmir and, in the past, had reserved choicest words of criticism for the "puppet" Government and Chief Minister of the State.

Denial of visas to these officials had led to "postponement" of the talks, but on this occasion, a Pakistan team, led by a Foreign Ministry official, will find themselves face-to-face with these State Government functionaries they were keen to avoid.

Most crucial talks

These bus talks, perhaps, are the most crucial of the series of expert-level discussions, which are scheduled to take place before the second round of talks between the Foreign Secretaries in the third week of December.

The first talks in this series are the December 3-4 dialogue between the railway authorities of India and Pakistan on the Munabao-Khokrapar rail link in Islamabad. Last week, the External Affairs Minister, Natwar Singh, announced that this second rail link between the two countries would begin on October 2 -- Gandhi Jayanti.

A meeting of the Indian Coast Guard and the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency to discuss, among other things, a memorandum of understanding to set up a hotline between the two agencies will take place on December 3-4 in New Delhi. Several other meetings are also scheduled.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National