Srinagar- Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Thursday completed one year in office, but the restoration of the statehood, his key election promise, is still not within sight.

Abdullah was sworn in as the first chief minister of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir on October 16 last year after his party secured a landslide win in the assembly elections - the party's first in about a decade.

Most promises of Abdullah's party, the National Conference, remain unfulfilled.

In its manifesto 'Dignity, Identity and Development,' the party promised to strive for the full implementation of the Autonomy Resolution passed by the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly in 2000, and restore the status quo with respect to Articles 370 and 35A, and statehood to pre-August 5, 2019.

The party promised that in the interim period, it would endeavour to redraw the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, and the Transaction of Business of the Government of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir Rules, 2019.

The manifesto said the party will make efforts to modify, annul, and repeal post-August 5, 2019, laws that impact the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, and protect the land and employment rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

However, in the first year, the NC government has not been able to do much on these promises. The exceptions: a resolution in its first cabinet meeting calling for restoration of J-K's statehood, and another resolution in the assembly asking the Centre to work out a constitutional mechanism to restore the special status of the erstwhile state.

The government faces criticism from the valley-based opposition parties as well as from within its own ranks, which have accused it of“doing nothing” and“only appeasing New Delhi and the BJP.”

The party's Lok Sabha MP from Srinagar, Ruhullah Mehdi, conceded that the government had failed on the political front.

“Whatever needed to be done on the political front has not happened. There was a need to show intent, but I personally feel that has not been shown till now,” Mehdi said recently.

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