The government will move forward in Jammu and Kashmir by adopting an approach of embracing all and not by ‘goli and gaali’ (bullet and abuse), Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday as he announced that elections to village panchayats and local bodies in the state would be held in coming months.
Speaking from the ramparts of Red Fort on the 72nd Independence Day, Modi said his government will move ahead in the state by following the path of ‘Insaaniyat, Kashmiriyat and Jamhuriyat’ as shown by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
He said his government wants to ensure balanced development of the three regions of Jammu and Kashmir – Ladakh, Jammu and the Kashmir Valley – and the communities living there.
The prime minister said the central government is now directly sending funds to villages to ensure speedy development. Through this, he added, elected village heads will get more power to take their areas forward.
“In Jammu and Kashmir, Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji had shown us the path – and that path is right. We want to move forward on that path. Vajpayee ji had said we have to move forward to ensure Kashmir’s development on ‘Insaaniyat, Kashmiriyat and Jamhuriyat’.
“Be it Ladakh, Jammu or Kashmir Valley, there should be balanced development in the state and hopes and aspirations of common people there should be fulfilled. Infrastructure should be improved and we should move forward with the sentiment of embracing all.
“We want to move forward by embracing the people of Kashmir, who live with great patriotic feelings, and not on the path of ‘goli and gaali’ (bullet and abuse),” he said.
Modi said irrigation schemes were moving forward in the state and work to set up an IIT, an IIM and an AIIMS and the reconstruction of the famous Dal Lake is also being undertaken.
“In very near future, we are moving forward towards holding panchayat and local body elections,” he said, noting that efforts are being made to strengthen democratic institutions in the state.
Modi said people living in villages of Jammu and Kashmir and village heads were meeting him in large numbers, demanding early elections to panchayats and local bodies.
The elections have remained stalled for some reason or the other. The last panchayat polls in Jammu and Kashmir were held in 2011 and the urban local body elections have not been held for nearly eight years.
“I am happy to say that in coming months, people of Jammu and Kashmir will get an opportunity to exercise their right and set up their own system,” the PM said.
The PM also promised that the law against triple talaq will materialise and the removal of AFSPA from large parts of the northeast.
“Our forces have ushered in a new era of internal security,” he said.
He said India has always advanced in space science “but we have decided that by 2022, when India completes 75 years of Independence, or before that, a son or daughter of India will go to space with a tricolor in their hands”.
He added that India will become the fourth nation after the US, Russia and China to send a human to space.
Ayushman Bharat, popularly referred to as “Modicare”, will be rolled out on September 25, on the birth anniversary of Deen Dayal Upadhyay, co-founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the Prime Minister said. The programme aims to provide coverage of Rs. 5 lakh to 10 crore economically backward families.
In a dig at the Congress, he said, “If we don’t look at where we started, we will not be able to how far we have come. If we take 2013 as the base year, you’ll be surprised to learn the pace of progress… The world used to talk about electricity blackouts, bottlenecks in India. Today it says the “sleeping elephant” has started walking”.
The PM also issued a warning on the spiraling atrocities on women.
“Rapes are being tackled sternly. It should be widely reported how rapists are being sent to the gallows for their crimes. Rule of law is supreme, no one can take law in their hands,” he said. (Agencies)