At the press meeting, the CM also talked about the power situation in the Valley amid peak winter, and the status of the ruling National Conference’s alliance with the Congress.

The five takeaways from Omar Abdullah’s press meet:

‘Centre has told us clearly that we have the mandate’

Pointing out that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had himself committed to restoration of statehood to J&K, Abdullah said he wanted to give the Centre “the first opportunity” to do so rather than going back to courts.

“Every government or every individual has recourse to courts. But that was never going to be our first option,” he said, adding that doing so would amount to a “fight”.

Terming the lack of statehood his “biggest challenge”, the CM said: “J&K runs a deficit budget, therefore we are more dependent on the Government of India than other states and UTs.”

At the same time, Omar said, his government was under no pressure to “change our thinking or our language or our agenda” – from the PM, Union Home Ministry or anyone from the BJP or Raj Bhavan.

“From the first day, the PM and the HM (Home Minister) have told me that ‘You have been given the mandate and we are in the Opposition. There will be no effort to destabilise this government. The support that we extended to the Lieutenant Governor will be extended to you. We will respect the mandate of the people of J&K’. These are the words of the PM and HM,” Omar said.

The CM also said that the Union government was not blind to the “benefits” of the elections that saw enthusiastic participation by the people of J&K. “The biggest promise the Central government made to the people of J&K is restoration of statehood. We hope that this won’t take too long. When the Supreme Court gave its verdict about a year ago, it said that statehood be restored ‘as soon as possible’. It has been a year and we believe that that’s enough.”

The biggest responsibility of his own government, Omar said, was to respect “the sentiments and aspirations” of the people of J&K.

‘Prickliness with LG more imagined than real… but clarity needed’

On the challenges of running an elected government in a Union Territory, Omar said, “Obviously dual centres of power are not to anyone’s advantage… It is one of the peculiarities of a UT that dual systems of power are built into the structure, which is why I said that this is a learning period for us… understanding where our authority begins and ends.”

On “rifts” between the government and Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, the CM said: “Some of the prickliness is more a figment of imagination than reality… There have been one or two areas where there have been differences of opinion in terms of ‘whose authority it is’, but it’s not as widespread as you would like to believe it is.”

At the same time, “for clarity to be built into the system”, he said that the much-delayed Rules of Business laying out the demarcation of powers should be specified at the earliest.

‘First let’s save jobs, land, then talk reservations’

With extension of reservations following the abrogation of Article 370 triggering protests, including by NC MP Aga Mehdi Ruhullah, Omar sought to play down the issue. The first priority of his government was to “save jobs and land of the people of J&K”, he said, before talking about reservations.

Noting that a Cabinet sub-committee was considering the reservation issue, the CM said it would come out with its findings within six months. “Parallelly, the High Court (of J&K and Ladakh) is also hearing this… I am of the belief that whether you are from the open or reserved category, today the fear is that our jobs aren’t just for us, our land isn’t just for us. We have to save these for ourselves first and then we can fight over reservations,” he said.

Both the NC and other parties in J&K have expressed the fear that with the modification of restrictions on “outsiders” following the scrapping of special status, the residents would end up losing the first right to jobs and land in the Union Territory.

‘Free power promise on the cards, but meters essential’

Over the past month, as temperatures have fallen to sub-zero amid intermittent snowfall, the Valley has been struggling with power cuts. Improving the electricity situation figured among promises made by all the parties during the recent Assembly elections, with demand outstripping supply even during summer months.

A few days ago, Omar put out on social media that he had decided to function from Srinagar, though the government is currently operating from Jammu due to peak winter, so as to keep a close watch on the hardships being faced by people because of freezing temperatures.

At the press meeting, Omar said: “We witness these difficulties every winter, but we are providing more electricity this year than previous years. However, even now (power) cuts are necessary. The load is several times the supply.”

The UT was spending Rs 9,500 crore per year on purchasing electricity, but AT&C losses (or distribution losses) at over 50% made the situation difficult, Omar said, adding that the situation is expected to improve once power projects under construction are completed.

Regarding the NC’s poll promise of providing 200 units of electricity free, the CM said: “This will only happen when there are smart meters in place. We cannot measure units without a meter. By March or April, we will roll out this scheme, but obviously those with meters will get the benefit of the scheme.”

However, J&K has been seeing protests over the setting up of these meters as well.

‘Haven’t heard of any change from Cong end’

At the time of government formation, the Congress had taken everyone by surprise by deciding to stay out and support the NC from outside. Reduced to six seats, the party is in no position anyway to dictate terms to the NC.

Asked about the Congress continuing to remain outside the government, Omar said: “The National Conference is part of the INDIA bloc, the Congress is supporting our government, and at the moment it is outside support. They have said that they will remain out until statehood is restored. I haven’t heard of any change after that.”