By IANS,
Jammu : The Jammu and Kashmir unit of Bharatiya Janta Party has demanded immediate removal of Governor N.N. Vohra, and alleged he has acted as an “agent of the Congress” in handing back 40 hectares of forest land from the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) to the state government.
Reacting angrily to Vohra handing over the land and all the Amarnath pilgrimage arrangements to the state government, BJP’s state unit president Ashok Khajuria told a news conference in Jammu: “Vohra has behaved as a Congress agent and played up with the sentiments of Hindus and their faith.”
“He should be immediately removed from the position,” Khajuria said.
Former bureaucrat Narendra Nath Vohra was June 25 appointed Jammu and Kashmir governor, succeeding Lt. Gen. (retd) S.K.Sinha who completed his tenure.
“The new governor has denigrated the constitutional office,” he claimed.
The BJP as well as Shiv Sena (Bal Thackeray faction) units of the state have given a call for Jammu shutdown Monday.
Khajuria also expressed anger over Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad’s “double speak” and “petty politics”.
He said that Azad has behaved as a “communalist and all his talk of development and dignity of the people were a falsehood”.
The Jammu and Kashmir government Sunday said it will retain the forest land allotted to the SASB.
The move came a day after the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) left the government in crisis by pulling out of the Congress-led coalition amid differences over the allotment of the forest land in north Kashmir Baltal.
The Kashmir Valley has witnessed violent protests in the past week, after the state government March 5 allotted 40 hectares of forest land to the SASB, which till now managed the annual pilgrimage to the Hindu cave shrine in south Kashmir.
The Jammu and Kashmir cabinet March 5, 2008 allotted the 40 hectares of forest land in north Kashmir Baltal base camp area of the Amarnath Yatra to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) headed by the state governor for facilities for the pilgrims.