by Saima Bhat
SRINAGAR: During his daylong visit to the three regions of Jammu and Kashmir, Prime Minister, Narendra Modi reiterated that development is the solution to all problems faced by the state. He said only he had the courage for a ceasefire and to take back thousands of stone pelting cases against youth.
In his address at SKICC – after his Ladakh visit, Modi said the recently taken decision of ceasefire in the holy month of Ramadhan was to expose the people who are spreading terrorism in the grab of Islam. “It is the month of Ramadhan and time to recall the teaching of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and learn from his life. His teachings can take the world forward towards progress and prosperity,” Modi said.
The state coalition government, BJPDP, Modi said is working hard to get youth back to the roads of development. “The youth of Jammu and Kashmir have to play the major role for the development of the state. This state has every facility to move forward, you should not lag behind.”
Modi said that any stone or a gun taken by local youth damages their homeland. “They have to return for the development of their nation. The state youth has to connect with the development of India,” Modi said. “From thousands of years we belong to one nation, nobody can create problems between two brothers. People who are there to create problems have reached their end.”
PM Modi was all praises for the beauty of Kashmir and said, “This is the same Kashmir jis key Vajpayee Ji qayal rahein hai, aur Modi bi mureed hai.”
He reefed to his Red Fort speech in which he said that Kashmir’s problems will get solved by hugging all Kashmiris. He said he still stands by that speech. “Only we have the strength and courage to help Kashmiris. Be it taking back of 1000’s of cases of youth who were involved in stone pelting or the ceasefire in the month of Ramadhan,” he said.
He said his government is leaving no stone unturned to solve the problems but to save the Kashmiryat and Jhamyurat he needs the help of all youth, parents, saints and all the resident of the state. “All of them have the important role to play. I request them to use their energy on the development of the state. For every problem, dispute, the only solution is development. Peace is the need of the hour and centre will provide every help for maintaining this peace in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.”
PM Modi spoke at SKICC after dedicating the Kishenganga hydro power project in Leh. He said the project was not only going to help states across India but will contribute a major portion of electricity to the State. This 330 MW project will solve the maximum electricity crisis in the state. This project is engineer’s marvel.”
He said the project will provide a free power of 13 per cent to the state, which will be around Rs 133 crore per year. There are other benefits to the state like- Employment to the people of J&K, infrastructure development etc. It is estimated that the project engaged about 1850 local persons during the construction stage and 750 local persons during operation stage through direct and indirect employment. The Project was handed over to NHPC for execution by the State Government after a MoU was signed between J&K Govt. and Ministry of Power, Govt of India in July 2000.
In Kashmir, he also laid the foundation stone of Srinagar ring road of 42 kilometres that will come up at the cost of more than Rs 1200 crores. The project is expected to help in easing the traffic jams in the city. He said it is important to develop all the three regions of Kashmir equally.
He also mentioned that Rs 6300 crore projects have been approved by the Centre and out of which more than Rs 20,000 crores have already been spent on the constructions of IIT, AIIMS, hospitals, new national highways, all-weather roads, power distributions, power transmission lines, different Yojna schemes for farmers, new employment avenues.
PM Modi said the state of Jammu and Kashmir has the capacity not only to run itself but other states as well. “To explore more we are working here for last 4 decades. In Kishtwar we are going to start a hydro project that will come up at Rs 8000 crore. We have invested Rs 4000 crores for the transmission of electricity, Rs 78 lakh lED bulbs have been distributed which has already saved Rs 400 crores. Now we are working on the projects that will provide free electricity to the villages that haven’t seen electricity yet.”
He praised state’s beauty as well. He said State’s biggest sector that can helps in development is tourism. “We have seen from decades that this sector is generating more avenues at less investment, but time has come where old practices have to be changed. Only J&K has the capacity to increase India’s GDP. If only I speak of tourism, around Rs 2000 crores investments have been done that will create 12 development authorities, 3 tourism circuits, 50 tourist villages.” He applied thrust on developing the ecosystem of tourism as well.
He said his coalition party in the state is working for the people who have been displaced due to the cross-border problems and they have invested Rs 3.50 crore for them.
PM Modi sees the Jammu and Kashmir state as the role model for other states. “When I meet youth who qualify civil services it gives me immense happiness. A Bandipora’s daughter Tajamul Islam made us all proud and we have started investing on the sports talent of state. We are developing the sports infrastructure for this state, we are creating new avenues for the employment of youth, Himayat scheme is working on the training of 1 lakh youth, more than 16000 youth have got PM’s special scholarship scheme, where they have been given chance to study in India’s top colleges and universities. Even the dropouts have also been given chance to serve the nation, we have created vacancies for their job as well. Jammu and Kashmir police is going to add 5 more battalion which means 5000 youth get employment, the process is in its final stage.”
