Avtar Bhat
BANI June 20: Lambasting Congress and National Conference (NC) who ruled erstwhile J&K State for over six decades, Union Minister in PMO with Independent Charge of Science and Technology, Dr Jitendra Singh accused them of discriminating with Jammu areas which did not vote for them.
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Addressing a mammoth public rally here, today, Dr Jitendra Singh said that Bani and other areas of Jammu region were subjected to discrimination by the two parties for vote bank politics with the result these remote areas remained in constant neglect and deprivation over the years.
He said it was only after Narendra Modi took over as Prime Minister in 2014, he took a pledge to give priority in development to those areas of the country which remained neglected for decades together that the development process started in this remote belt also.
Dr Jitendra Singh said that the two parties had a deliberate purpose in neglecting these areas for their vested political interests as these areas don’t constitute a vote bank for them.
The Union Minister said in this discrimination they went to inhuman extent as they discriminated with youth of one end of the border to another end of the border by denying four percent reservation rights to the people living in the border belt from Kathua to Akhnoor while giving the reservation to the people living on LoC in Kashmir.
He said when there was no logic in depriving the people of border belt of Kathua, Hiranagar, Samba, RS Pura, Bishnah and Akhoor of reservation benefits when they as well as those living in Akhnoor were facing the equal problems during border skirmishes why they were deprived and given a maltreatment. He also took the leaders of these parties from Jammu region to task for maintaining stoic silence against discriminatory policy to please their bosses in Government and playing with the interests of the people of this region.
He said but now the situation has totally changed as Modi Government’s Mantra is `Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas and Sabka Vishwas’. “We are for justice to all and appeasement to none so that every segment of society and every area of country is equally benefitted through Government schemes”, he added.
Dr Jitendra Singh said the elected representatives of these parties never wanted education or awareness to reach the people in remote areas, so that election after election, the people’s ignorance could be exploited to secure their vote.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, Prime Minister Narendra Modi changed this self-centred culture to reach out to those who were needy, regardless of whichever party they had voted for. He said, some day, analysts will seek an answer as to why all the development that happened in remote Bani area in the last eight years, could not happen in the earlier six decades.
He said, the best way to appreciate eight years of the Modi rule is to recall the scenario that existed in the eight years prior to that. When Modi took over as Prime Minister in 2014, the entire country was reeling under the shadow of pessimism and the common citizen had lost all hopes in the din of mega scams and scandals involving Ministers and functionaries at high places, he said and added that Modi’s swearing-in ceremony as Prime Minister of India in the evening of 26 May 2014 marked the beginning of the nation’s journey from pessimism to optimism.
Today, even people living in remote areas like here feel confident that their elected representatives sincerely care for them and are constantly working hard to get new projects for them, said Dr Jitendra Singh. “This change has been possible because we have the Modi Government at the Centre”, he added.
Referring to the massive developments seen in the far flung hilly regions like Bani, Dr Jitendra Singh said, Modi had promised that he would raise the neglected and peripheral regions of the country to the same equal level as the more developed regions and he has succeeded in doing so. He said, Bani which was one of the most inaccessible regions in the Jammu division, had in the last eight years received a network of roads through Central funds and new Highways are under construction.
He praised Modi for introducing the new work style and reaching out to those who were most needy, regardless of whichever political party they voted for.
Many of the national projects in the region, said Dr Jitendra Singh, have been possible because of the personal indulgence of Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. In this regard, he referred to the Chattergala Tunnel which will be a part of the new National Highway from Lakhanpur to Basohli-Bani to Doda, thus offering an alternate all-weather and less time consuming road connectivity.
The Minister informed that the BRO agency Beacons has already prepared the DPR for Chattergala Tunnel which is estimated to cost Rs.4,000 crores. He said, he has requested Road Transport Minister, Nitin Gadkari to include it in the next plan of Bharatmala-scheme.
Dr Jitendra Singh also referred to the new Kendriya Vidyalaya sanctioned for Bani and said the construction work on the crucial motorable road between Billawar and Bani will be proceeded on fast track because it had got delayed on account of certain technical reasons and the COVID pandemic.
Former MLA Bani Jeevan Lal, DDC Chairman Col (Retd) Mahan Singh and veteran BJP leader Uttam Goswami also spoke on the occasion. They profusely appreciated the dedicated hard work by Dr Jitendra Singh which had changed the face of Bani. They said, the development seen in the last eight years far exceeded that of the earlier over 60 years.
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