New Delhi, Jan 26: As the momentum for beginning talks between the separatists and representatives of the Jammu and Kashmir is picking up, efforts are on to find an interlocutor from the Centre with consensus building up in favour of giving the charge again to deputy chairman of Planning Commission K C Pant. Maintaining a low profile, Pant has been discreetly holding talks with the think tank of Kashmir and trying to generate an opinion about starting his "Mission Kashmir" afresh, informed sources said here.
Of late, pant has been holding closed-door meetings with state chief minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed. Though both of them have been maintaining that the discussions were for allocation of plan funds, what was interesting to note was that none of the secretaries from either side were present during the Sayeed-Pant meeting.
During his recent visit to the national capital, Sayeed again held a 30-minute long meeting with pant without aides and both the sides refused to divulge the points of discussions and sought to dismiss speculation by merely saying that talks were held only for fund allocation.
The sources said the Centre and the state government were silently working out the modalities for beginning the talks as Sayeed has been emphasising the need for an early exercise following international appreciation for his stand including that from Britain's High Commissioner Rob Young recently. Bureau Report