‘Developmental projects picking up in Jammu with fast pace’
Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, Feb 6: Hitting out at BJP Government detractors who have become habitual of making oft repeated allegations that discrimination still continues with Jammu region, Union Minister in PMO, with independent charge of North Eastern States, Dr Jitendra Singh today said that they should change their mindset and remove this negativity as developmental projects during over last six years of Modi Government have picked up in Jammu at a fast pace.
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Addressing a party seminar on annual budget 2021-22 presented in Parliament on February 1, Dr Jitendra Singh said that those making allegations of discrimination should see the things with a new prism and not become habitual of misleading the people on this account.
Maintaining that there has been no discrimination in sanction of development projects in Jammu& Kashmir during the last nearly seven years under Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, Dr Jitendra Singh said, to the contrary, some of the projects which were simultaneously sanctioned for both Jammu as well as Kashmir regions have moved faster in Jammu region because conditions were not so compatible in the Kashmir valley.
In this context, he cited the example of AIIMS whose first session with 50 students is starting in Jammu, Biotech Industrial Park which is ready in Kathua and the first phase of Ring Road which has already been dedicated to the public in Jammu, while in Kashmir all these three projects have got delayed because of factors beyond control.
He, while presenting facts and figures said that the developmental projects picked up in Jammu region than Kashmir valley during over last six years of Modi rule because of the congenial atmosphere prevailing here.
The Union Minister reiterated that Modi led Government at Centre is committed for equitable development of all three regions of Jammu , Kashmir and Ladakh on the pattern of North Eastern State and hence many projects were sanctioned for J&K and Ladakh UTs by this Government during last seven years.
He said the announcement of recent industrial package of Rs 28,000 crore for J&K is a step in this direction while many developmental initiatives for the Ladakh region were also taken by this Government for the first time in the history of the Himalayan region.
Dr Jitendra Singh, while taking a dig at the opponents, said that they should free their mindset from such things and ponder that such projects which were simultaneously started for Kashmir and Jammu regions are in infancy in Kashmir Valley while they have picked up in this region “and still we talk of discrimination.”
He said those talking of discrimination should think why the National Institute of High Altitude Medicines which has been sanctioned for Bhadarwah area of Doda district in Jammu region was not sanctioned for any high altitude area of Kashmir valley.
He said, however, this does not mean that the Kashmir valley has been ignored but same attention has been paid for the development of that region too but due to uncongenial atmosphere prevailing there the developmental projects could not pick up with the same pace as they picked up in this region as Modi Government is working on the Mantra of “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas and Sabka Vishwas’’ and “we are committed to it.”
Describing Union Budget 2021-22 as a Vision Document for Post-COVID India, Dr Jitendra Singh said that in the last nearly seven years the Modi Government has ensured equitable development of Jammu & Kashmir without any regional discrimination whatsoever.
Dr. Jitendra Singh said COVID-19 took the world by surprise but India under Narendra Modi succeeded in turning this adversity into opportunity because of the pre-emptive and decisive approach of Prime Minister who set the tone for the other countries of the world to follow. He said, this approach was primarily based on two aspects, first to raise the morale of the people and give them the confidence to build an Atma Nirbhar Bharat and second to follow a novel approach of rolling out a series of packages under the name of Atma Nirbhar Packages which could be otherwise described as a series of “Mini Budgets” before the General Budget.
Dr Jitendra Singh said Budget is therefore inspired by the realization that India is set to play a leading role as a frontline nation in Post-COVID world and therefore the thrust areas in the form of six pillars or priorities listed in the Budget are also aimed to prepare India to assume this leading role in the times to come. The Budget draft thus, he said, goes beyond the realms of an economic document and turns into a Vision Document for India which has entered into a milestone year on the threshold of observing the 75th year of Independence in 2022.
For the first time in the history of independent India, said Dr Jitendra Singh, a departure was made from the past practice and the health sector was given highest priority with a 137% hike in the allocation for preventive, curative and wellbeing aspects of health.
Similarly, high prioritization of infrastructure development, said Dr. Jitendra Singh with allocation of over Rs.1.18 lakh crore is the highest ever which also includes several express road corridors including the Delhi-Katra Expressway corridor to be built at a cost of Rs 3500 crore. The Railway Budget of over 1.10 lakh crore includes the Katra-Srinagar railway line at a cost of Rs. 4100 crore.
On the occasion, Prof. Dipankar Sen from the Department of Economics, University of Jammu gave an academic overview while BJP president, Ravinder Raina summed up the session and Prashant Jha made a PowerPoint presentation. Mayor of Jammu City, Chandra Mohan Gupta presented vote of thanks. Arun Gupta, president Jammu Chamber of Commerce and Industry was also present among the other prominent participants.
Later addressing a press conference with BJP J&K president, Ravinder Raina, chief spokesperson, Sunil Sethi and spokesperson Priya Sethi, Dr Jitendra Singh asserted that the “negative powers” attempting to create misconceptions over the new agri laws would fail and maintained that Centre is working with an open heart to address the ongoing farmers’ agitation.
He, however, insisted that the new laws are “pro-farmer” and can never result in losses to them.
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