Narinder Nath Vohra, the former governor of Jammu and Kashmir, lauded Union Home Minister Amit Shah's statement on Wednesday regarding the Union Government's intention to withdraw troops and entrust law and order responsibilities to the Jammu and Kashmir Police.

He was the governor of Jammu and Kashmir from June 2008 to August 2018.

Vohra expressed appreciation for Shah's plan to revoke the application of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in Jammu and Kashmir, emphasising the importance of empowering the state police to maintain public order effectively.

"The state police must be made to discharge its primary duty of maintaining public order and free the military to return to its essential duties," Shri Vohra said.

Ahead of the Lok Sabha election, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that the central government is considering pulling back some troops from Jammu and Kashmir and leaving law and order to the police.

In an interview with Jammu and Kashmir-based Gulistan News, Shah said the government will leave law and order to the Jammu and Kashmir Police.

We have plans to pull back troops and leave law and order to the Jammu and Kashmir Police alone. We are strengthening the police, who are at the forefront during the encounter," Home Minister Amit Shah said.

The Home Minister also indicated that the government is considering revoking the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in parts of Kashmir.

"We will definitely consider this proposal (revoke the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act. The situation is being normalised. We are speedily considering this proposal," he said.

A national security protagonist, Shri Vohra, besides serving in the Himalayan border areas after the 1962 India-China conflict, functioned as the Punjab Home Secretary during the period of serious disturbances after Operation Bluestar and, later, as Defence Secretary and Home Secretary with the Government of India.

Ever since his retirement, he has been strongly propagating the need for the promulgation of the National Security Policy, under which the Union and the States should come to meaningful understandings for the state governments to effectively discharge their foremost responsibility of maintaining public order within their realms, to ensure that this crucial duty may be handed over to the military only in very exceptional circumstances.

He has been repeatedly stressing the hazards of the military being fettered with any task which dilutes its attention from its primary duty of safeguarding the territorial integrity of the country. (ANI)