Srinagar, May 22 -- Advocating for restoration of Jammu and kashmir's statehood and special status, deputy chief minister (CM) Surinder Choudhary on Thursday said that the demolition of houses in Jammu would not have happened had J&K been a state and the bureaucracy under the elected government.

"If only J&K was a state today and it had its own special status, then we would have seen who would demolish a house. The NC government has always provided homes to people," he said, stressing: "What falls is not the house of a Muslim or a Hindu but of a human being. We guarantee that we will not allow a single house to fall whenever we get our statehood and special status."

Choudhary said that whatever happened in Sidhra was condemnable. "We ha...