Ahead of Delhi protest, NC leaders meet civil society, pass resolution on Statehood for J&K

Ahead of the ruling National Conference (NC)’s upcoming protest in Delhi over State and constitutional guarantees, J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah held a meeting with civil society members on Tuesday, July 7, 2026.

“The meeting was extremely productive and Dr. (Farooq Abdullah) Sahib was able to get a lot of useful feedback and good suggestions. The meeting passed a unanimous resolution calling on the Union government to fulfill its promise and restore full State status to J&K without further delay,” said Mr. Omar Abdullah.

Earlier in the day, NC president Dr. Farooq Abdullah briefed civil society members about the protest to be held at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on the first day of the monsoon session of Parliament on July 20.

NC leaders apprised members about the December 2023 Supreme Court order in which the apex court had asked the Center to “restore State status”. [at the] NC leaders termed the delay in restoration of State status as “excessive” and described the Centre’s “appropriate time statement” as a “vague and untimely statement”.

“The state was supposed to follow delimitation and assembly elections in 2024. That did not happen. We decided to protest in Delhi,” a senior NC leader told the leaders.

The delegations representing the travel, tourism and business sectors also raised issues related to promotion of tourism, business facilitation and overall growth of the economy in J&K, a government spokesperson said.

J&K became a Union Territory in 2019, when the Center ended the seven-decade-old special status of the region under the provisions of Article 370. Since then, there have been constant demands from J&K’s regional parties to restore State status and special status.