Nishikant Khajuria
ARNAS (REASI), July 8: Hitting back at the National Conference and Congress for their selective criticism of ruling BJP in Jammu and Kashmir, Union Minister and Member of Parliament, Dr Jitendra Singh has asked Jammu based leaders of both the opposition parties to clear their stand on controversial Transfer of Land Amendment Bill.
“Since the leaders of these two parties are accusing the BJP of compromising interests of Jammu, they owe people of this region to explain whether they are serving Jammuites by supporting this controversial Bill, which is detrimental to industry here,” he said while addressing a largely attended public meeting, here today.
“If the Jammu based leaders of NC and Congress fail to clear their stand on the Bill, it would mean that their opposition to BJP is selective and not issue based,” added Dr Singh, who is Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space.
Maintaining that the opposition leaders were still in a state of shock because of their inability to digest the BJP in power, Dr Singh alleged that hidden agenda behind such attempts was to destabilize the ruling coalition. “When these parties (NC and PDP) were in power, they had been endorsing the same laws on transfer and lease of land but in the role of opposition and in sheer frustration, they are pressing for Amendment Bill, which may lead to shutting down of industrial units here,” he said.
On the occasion, Dr Jitendra Singh announced an amount of Rs 50 lakh for development works in Arnas and Gool segments of district Reasi falling in his constituency. “This will be in addition to the funds from other sources which would be made available for different ongoing works in the area,” he said.
Out of the amount of Rs 50 lakh allocated today, Rs 15 lakh MP-LAD in convergence with Rs 10 lakh will be spent on building bridle paths. Another Rs 4.5 lakh would be spent on building fencing wall in the School at Gool while additional Rs 4.5 lakh will be spent on construction of “Ghoda Gali” in Gool. An amount of Rs 8.5 lakh has already been earmarked for supplementing arrangements enroute the upcoming “Kousal Yatra”. Rs 5 lakh has been allocated for bridle paths and Rs 2.5 lakh is kept at the disposal of the Village Salal.
Dr Jitendra Singh regretted that even though Arnas-Gool is a region of high geographical and strategical importance for the State of Jammu & Kashmir, it did not receive the kind of attention it deserved. He said, rising above political and party considerations, and regardless of the political party of MLAs representing these areas, it is the responsibility of the Government and also his personal responsibility as Member of Parliament from the area to ensure equitable development and fair deal for these areas.
Referring to some of the path – breaking new initiatives of the Modi Government in the last two years, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the Central Government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi follows the principle of “cooperative federalism” vis-à-vis different States of the Union. This, he said, implies that the States will not only get their due share, but also that part of the share which they deserved but was not forthcoming earlier.
In the similar vein, he said, the Governments in the State are also expected to follow the principle of cooperative federalism among different regions and in case of Jammu & Kashmir, this would imply equitable development of not only the three regions of Jammu, Ladakh and Kashmir, but also each of the smaller regions falling in each of these three bigger regions.
District BJP president Kuldeep Dubey were among the number of prominent citizens present in the rally.
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