New Delhi: PM Modi has assured that he will follow policies laid down by former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee to resolve situation in Kashmir.said  Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi today. “Modi ji has repeatedly said that he would follow Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji’s footsteps, whose policy is of reconciliation not confrontation,” said Mehbooba mufti while talking to media men after meeting. She said that she discussed the security situation in Kashmir and the issue of low voter turnout during recent by-polls to Srinagar parliamentary constituency with PM.

During the 20-minute meeting at Modi’s residence here, Mehbooba briefed the prime minister on the situation, particularly in the increase in violence since the April 9 by-poll for the Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency.

Recent tensions in the PDP-BJP alliance over the handling of the security situation in Kashmir also came up at the meeting.

-She invoked former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s policy on Kashmir, and said the thread should be picked up from where he had left off – an apparent suggestion for talks with separatists.

“How long can you have confrontation… There is no option but to talk,” Mehbooba said. “However, an atmposphere needs to be created for a dialogue,” she said.

Referring to the increase in stone-pelting incidents, she said there were some young people who were “disillusioned” while some were being “instigated”, including through the use of social media sites such as Facebook and Whatsapp.

The path of dialogue undertaken by Vajpayee is the only way out to resolve the Kashmir crisis, she said.

Mufti stressed the need for having a discussion with the concerned parties to improve the situation in the state.

“It is important to hold talks at the latest… There is a need for conducive atmosphere for talks, and for governance,” Jammu and Kashmir CM said.

She also raised the Indus water treaty issue, saying it was causing a huge loss to the state.

Mehbooba said the prime minister assured her that efforts would be made to see how the state would be compensated for this.

The PDP leader is a on a visit to New Delhi to meet with government functionaries over deteriorating law and order situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

 

 

Mehbooba said that she pressed the issue of control over water resources in the state with PM Modi during the meeting.

“I pressed that J&K doesn’t have control over water resources, and how losses caused by Indus Waters Treaty can be compensated,” she said.

 

“Modi ji has repeatedly said that he would follow Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji’s footsteps, whose policy is of reconciliation not confrontation,” she said.The Chief Minister added that Prime Minister Modi has vowed to work on the lines of Atalji and his policy was of reconciliation and not of confrontation.

Inputs Agencies.