Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Jammu on Tuesday and unveiled multiple development initiatives totalling over ₹32,000 crore, spanning various sectors such as education, railways, aviation, and roads.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday said that Article 370, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir and was abrogated in 2019, was the biggest hurdle in the development of the erstwhile state. The PM said Article 370 was the main hurdle in bringing all-round development in J&K and the BJP government has abrogated it.
PM said that after the abrogation of Article 370, J&K has witnessed balanced development across regions and in all sectors. Addressing a massive rally at MA stadium in Jammu after launching multiple projects worth over 32,000 crore rupees for J&K and projects worth 13,500 crore rupees for other parts of the country, the PM said the government has reached people’s doorstep in J&K for the first time. He added that this is Modi’s guarantee.
PM Modi slammed the opposition, saying that the region, now a Union Territory, had to “bear the brunt of dynastic politics” for decades as the political parties who have indulged in dynastic politics have only cared about their own interest. PM further said that the government whose priority is the welfare of just one family cannot think of the welfare of the common people and expressed happiness to see J&K getting free from the dynastic rule. PM said, the common people of J&K got assurance of social justice mentioned in the Constitution for the first time after abrogation of Art 370 and there is a lot of enthusiasm in the whole world today about a developing Jammu and Kashmir. He said that a developed India means a developed Jammu and Kashmir.
Mr. Modi said, referring to the projects which he either inaugurated or laid the foundation stone for, that it was a remarkable day for J&K as the projects in Jammu and Kashmir will propel holistic development of the region. The PM said that a record number of schools, colleges and universities were established in India in the last 10 years, with 50 new degree colleges set up in J&K alone. The development projects which the PM launched or laid the foundation stone for include those related to education, railways, aviation and road sectors in Jammu and Kashmir. While projects for other parts of the country include IITs, IIMs and central universities. The PM also distributed appointment letters to about 1,500 newly recruited Government employees of J&K and interacted with the beneficiaries of various schemes as part of the ‘Viksit Bharat, Viksit Jammu’ programme.
This is the second visit of PM Modi to Jammu and Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019 and becomes crucial ahead of the coming Lok Sabha polls. The railway projects that PM Modi inaugurated are the railway line between Banihal-Khari-Sumber-Sangaldan (48 km) and the newly electrified Baramulla-Srinagar-Banihal-Sangaldan section (185.66 km). He flagged off the first electric train in the Valley and the train service between Sangaldan and Baramulla stations. The commissioning of the Banihal-Khari-Sumber-Sangaldan section is significant as it features the usage of ballast-less track (BLT) all along the route providing a better ride experience to passengers.