Tribune News Service
New Delhi, August 5
With the government today deciding to abolish Article 370, which gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir, officials in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said the Union Territories would now “completely integrate” with the Indian Union and its residents would enjoy equal rights like the citizens in the rest of the country.
The officials were of the view that the decision would “finally and completely integrate the erstwhile J&K state into the Union of India, just as all other princely states and territories were in 1950”.
“These decisions will maintain all fundamental rights given to the citizens of the erstwhile J&K, as is the case with any other citizen of India,” they said, maintaining the order would also allow any individual, business or NGO that operated as per the law of the land to freely operate, under the same rules of business, in the new Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
A large population of young Kashmiris, the officials said, studying and working in other states of India would get the “power and confidence” to be equal citizens of India without being branded as special citizens.
Claiming that the situation had now emerged where private and public investment would flow unhindered into both these new UTs, the officials said the decision would ensure faster development of the economy, with high-quality educational institutions and the flow of a large corpus of funds in the field of tourism.
The officials said Article 35A, which defined the permanent residents of the state, would cease to exist as a result of the repealing of Article 370.
What will change
Citizenship
Those who migrated from Pakistan during Partition will become citizens of India, have voting right
Law and order
Earlier, it was under state govt but now the Centre will be able to decide on power-sharing setup
Central laws
Prior approval of state legislature used to be a must, but now Central laws will automatically become applicable to both the new UTs
Marrying ‘outsiders’
Kashmiri girls marrying “outsiders” earlier lost the right for their progeny to be state citizens, but no such disentitlement now
Land rights, quota
Minorities will be eligible for quota; people from other states will be eligible to buy land and property
Emergency, other laws
Articles 356 (emergency) and 360 (financial emergency) to be applicable to the TUs; RTI Act to be applicable too