India formally divides Jammu and Kashmir state
At the stroke of midnight on Wednesday, Jammu and Kashmir has ceased to be a state and became India's newest federally-ruled territory which gives Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government direct control to run its affairs.
On August 5, the Modi government announced its decision to scrap Jammu and Kashmir's status as a state and split into two separate territories including Ladakh, reports our New Delhi correspondent.
Addressing an event in Ahmedabad in his home state Gujarat today, Modi said Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh "are taking a step towards a new future."
"Our decision on Jammu and Kashmir is not to draw a line on the land but to build a chain of trust," he said.
He said the country decided to scrap Article 370 which had only given Jammu and Kashmir separatism and terrorism, reports our New Delhi correspondent.
The Indian government also withdrew Jammu and Kashmir's decades-old special status under the Constitution's Article 370 whose abrogation has been a key ideological plank of ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
The Indian Home Ministry, in a notification on Wednesday, replaced the state of Jammu and Kashmir with the "union territory of Jammu and Kashmir" and announced omission of "permanent residents or hereditary state subjects".
In the late-night notification, the Ministry's Jammu and Kashmir division announced a slew of measures, including application of federal laws. "...there are references in the state laws that have been applied to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, and the Union Territory of Ladakh to the expressions 'permanent residents' or 'hereditary state subjects'...wherever they occur, shall be omitted," it said.
The birth of the two new federally-ruled territories came on a day when India is marking the 144th birth anniversary of its first Home Minister Vallabhbhai Patel who is credited with merging over 560 small princely states into the Union of India soon after its independence on August 15, 1947.
"I dedicate the decision to abrogate Article 370 to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel," Modi said.
October 31, is also celebrated as a National Unity Day and the Modi government said abrogation of Article 370 brings Jammu and Kashmir into a closer integration with the rest of India.
With the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir, the number of states in India has come down to 28 and the number of federally-ruled territories has gone up to nine.
While Jammu and Kashmir will continue to have a legislature, like in Puducherry, Ladakh will be without one, like Chandigarh.
The federal Indian government will be in direct charge of the police and law and order in Jammu and Kashmir while decisions on land will be the elected government's jurisdiction.
The government has argued that both Article 370 was a "temporary" provision of the Constitution and inhibited the development of the state.