People’s Conference leader Sajad Lone has refused to take charge of the Animal Husbandry Ministry, protesting the allotment of an ‘insignificant’ portfolio in the PDP-BJP Cabinet in Jammu and Kashmir. He returned to Srinagar on Wednesday without joining office in Jammu.
Sources told The Hindu that he believed he was given an insignificant Ministry and had “not been treated well”.
An ally of the BJP, Mr. Lone was inducted as a Cabinet Minister following a last-minute decision. “If they didn't want to give him any important Ministry, we should have been told so,” a senior People’s Conference leader said.
Mirwaiz welcomes talks
Meanwhile, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, headed by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, on Wednesday welcomed the renewed Foriegn Secretary-level talks between India and Pakistan, calling it a “positive development.” At the same time, it urged that the Kashmir issue must not be "brushed aside or ignored".
