Srinagar, July 23: Bhartiya Janata Party’s (BJP) J&K unit has decided to mark the first anniversary of revocation of Article 370 with mega celebrations from August 5 for 15 days.

The first day of the 15 day celebrations will witness unfurling of tricolor in all zonal, tehsil and district headquarters. The party leadership believes that the “historic decision” taken last year has helped “restore peace in the region” but Covid-19 has played a spoiler as far as the development of  J&K UT is concerned.

State BJP General Secretary Ashok Koul said that a 15-day long program has been chalked out to celebrate one year of last year’s August 5 decision—scraping the Article 370 and slicing the erstwhile J&K State into two Union Territories (UTs)—J&K and UT.

“As far as the restoration of peace in the J&K UT is concerned, figures are before everybody and the situation is quite clear. Kashmir is peaceful today and credit goes to last year’s historic decision. On the development front, Covid-19 played a spoilsport. The way development should have taken place it hasn’t,” Koul said.

He said Government forces too have been able to kill a record number of militants this year and protests at the encounter sites have vanished.

“Today, we see no clashes at the encounter sites as youth have realized the futility of protests,” he said.

Asked about the 15-day-long program commencing from August 5, Koul said day one will start with unfurling of Tri-colour in all district, zonal, and tehsil headquarters in J&K. “Municipal wards and head offices will also witness hoisting of tri-colour on August 5. There are a lot of programs on cards. We have kept a day to remember all police martyrs and all political workers killed so far in the past three decades including those killed recently,” Koul said.

He said as a BJP leader, he is quite satisfied with the outcome of last year’s August 5 announcement.

BJP JK spokesman Altaf Thakur said that the party has decided to celebrate the J&K’s complete integration with the Union of India. “Central ministers will address virtual rallies. They will also visit various districts of J&K and meet Refugees, Safai Karam Charis,” Thakur said—(KNO)