JAMMU: Jammu and Kashmir Governor Gen. S.K. Sinha said on Thursday that there was universal acceptability of the country's stand on Jammu and Kashmir.

Greeting people on Republic Day, the Governor said this was evident from statements across the world.

The United Nations Secretary-General and Pakistan President had accepted that plebiscite in Kashmir was no longer feasible, he said.

Musharraf's stand

Gen. Pervez Musharraf too was trying to be practical by accepting that U.N. resolutions on Kashmir were irrelevant. He had given up the claim over Kashmir and was not insisting on it being a core issue to be resolved first before holding talks on other issues. Gen. Musharraf was coming up with several out-of-box solutions without outlining their contours. The four-point formula was the latest, the Governor said.

Gen. Sinha described joint management, control or supervision impracticable in Kashmir as it impinges on sovereignty. He, however, said a joint mechanism to promote trade, tourism and cultural exchanges besides environment control, disaster management could certainly be considered.

Terrorist infrastructure

On demilitarisation, Gen. Sinha reiterated that it could be considered only after cessation of cross-border terrorism and violence. Pakistan should first dismantle the terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and stop assisting terrorists.

India was a vibrant and most flourishing democracy in the Third World, he said, adding democracy and self-rule were synonymous. Kashmir was enjoying greater self-rule, including economic and political, than any other State. He referred to Article 370 in this regard.

Emphasising that financial autonomy was as important as political autonomy, the Governor said the self-rule slogan should not be used for minimising political and administrative links with the Centre and maximising flow of funds from the Centre.

Octroi post

He said Jammu and Kashmir was the only State which had an octroi post on the inter-State border. The tax levied at the entry point of Lakhnapur yields Rs.1,000 crore to the exchequer annually. "We will welcome introduction of self-rule in PoK and Northern Area where it is desperately needed," the Governor said.

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