Jammu, Jan 9: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Sunday asserted that political awareness at grassroots level was imperative for peace and progress in Jammu and Kashmir.
 Addressing National Conference office bearers and activists from Sambha, Kathua, Udhampur and Ramban areas of Jammu, Omar underscored the need of “strengthening state’s secular credentials and nurturing its age old traits of love and brotherhood between various sections of the society.”
  “There is an urgent need to cement the bonds between various regions and sections of people in the state,” he said, asking his party workers to work as catalysts in direction.
 Omar asked his party men to act as friends of people and agents of development and peace.
 Rejecting attempts of certain politicians to divide society in the name of region, religion, creed and caste for vote-bank politics, Omar said such attempts would not succeeded as people are wise enough to read between the lines.
 “Such attempts need to be foiled jointly by the people by exhibiting their earnest faith in the secular democratic principles,” he said.
 Omar asked the party workers to nurture the manifesto of communal harmony, equitable development of all areas and help in carrying forward the development agenda of the government for the state on fast track.
 “You should remain closely associated with the people at grassroots level and highlight their development needs and grievances at various levels,” Omar told the workers, asserting that political activists were a bridge between the government and the people.
 Omar said the coalition government is committed to fulfill its promises made on development front and steps have already been initiated in this direction. “The schemes and projects launched across the state during the past two years and innovative measures initiated to tackle unemployment crisis have started yielding results,” he said.
 Omar said that problems of unemployment and deficit in power generation require long term measures and perspective planning for their effective tackling.
 “We have introduced SKEWPY to address unemployment crisis besides providing jobs to youth in government and private sector,” he said adding that during the last two years about 25,000 employments have been provided in the government sector while 43,000 engagements have also been approved for youth.
 Omar said government has awarded 690 MW Rattle power project on tariff based bidding while joint venture has been signed with NHPC and PTC by the State for execution of 1000 MW Pukal Dul, 600 MW Kiru and 520 MW Kawar power projects to give considerable fillip to the generation of power in the State.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 9 Jan 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 9 Jan 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 10 Jan 2011 00:00:00 IST