Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday said he was happy to join the campaign against obesity, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Abdullah also nominated 10 people to join the campaign.
“I’m very happy to join the campaign against obesity launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji,” he said in a post on X.
“Obesity causes a number of lifestyle-related health issues like heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, strokes and breathing problems, not to mention mental health conditions like anxiety and depression. Today I’m nominating these 10 people to join the prime minister campaign against obesity and requesting them to nominate a further 10 people each to take this fight forward,” he added.
Among those nominated by Abdullah for the campaign are Biocon Limited founder Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, businessman Sajjan Jindal, actor Deepika Padukone, former tennis player Sania Mirza, former cricketer Irfan Pathan, NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) MP Supriya Sule and former Wushu star Kuldeep Handoo.
Making a strong pitch for fighting obesity, Modi had in his “Mann ki Baat” broadcast on Sunday urged people to use less oil in food and also pass on the challenge of reducing oil intake by 10 per cent to 10 others.
Abdullah later told reporters that Modi started the campaign to raise awareness.
“The prime minister nominated me through a tweet (X post), and I also took an initiative and nominated 10 more people. It is hoped that this will spread awareness. The more we take care of our health, the more we can work efficiently, the more our children can study, it will decrease pressure on our hospitals and increase our life expectancy,” he said.
The National Conference vice-president said people should make attempts to remain healthy.
“It is understood that obesity is a sort of disease, a lifestyle illness, and is increasing. Obesity can be controlled if we take precautions, exercise and eat healthy,” he added.
Asked about fulfilling his poll promises, Abdullah said the people had given him a mandate for five years and not five days.
“We have not even presented our first budget yet. You should wait, we know what promises we made and how to fulfil those. I have reiterated from day one that what we can achieve through a Union Territory, we will achieve those,” he said.
“Why am I fighting for statehood, why am I stressing on the demand? Because I know that there are many issues due to which people are suffering and such problems cannot be resolved in a Union Territory setup. It is important we need the status of a state for that,” he added.
The chief minister said his government would keep doing both together. “What we can achieve in a Union Territory, we will do that. For issues for which we need statehood, we are getting statehood.” Abdullah, however, refused to comment on his government’s first budget.
“It will be wrong to say anything on the budget. The responsibility of the government is to present the budget in the assembly first. So, I will not say anything about it,” he said.
Asked about apprehensions of water scarcity due to the absence of good rain and snowfall during the winter, Abdullah said he understood the fear.
“We have a rainfall deficit of about 80 per cent. So, when there is little rain or snowfall, it can lead to shortage of water in the summers. So, I had said we need to prepare for the summer months because it is possible that there can be water scarcity not just for agriculture but household use as well,” he said.
The people have to make changes in the way water is used, Abdullah said.
“The government needs to take steps like rainwater harvesting and saving glaciers. We will take steps in consultation with the agriculture and the Jal Shakti departments to devise ways for providing irrigation water to farmers,” he added.