Jammu: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha has stated that his administration has prioritized the “establishment of complete peace” in J&K and increase in revenue generation as major tasks to be accomplished.
He made this statement in an interview with the BBC Hindi, while responding to a query as to what were those one or two major targets, which he (LG), himself, felt that either they could not be achieved so far during his tenure of two years or so or they still required some more efforts to get fully accomplished.
“If I’ve to look upon things from that angle then I will say – for me an important area of concern has been as to how to increase revenue generation here in J&K. To achieve this, we are chalking out a strategy as to how we can double the GDP of J&K in the next five years or so. Second major challenge or target was on the security front to bring total peace here. There is great synergy among different security agencies. Almost ninety percent of this mission has been accomplished. Present ruling dispensation, both at the Centre led by the Prime Minister and here in UT, does not believe in buying peace. It believes in establishing peace. So we want to restore that ideal situation here as early as possible where we need not to buy peace but we’re in a position to establish it here for all purposes,” he stated.
When asked what the government achieved after the abrogation of Article 370, LG Sinha said, “With a sense of responsibility, I can say that the objective for, which Article 370 was abrogated, has been achieved to a great extent in the last three years. You know that many of the legislations made and passed by the Parliament of India would bear this note that they would be applicable to the entire country, except J&K. Hence, the citizens of J&K would be deprived of the benefits of those laws. So one of the major achievements post Article 370 abrogation is that around 890 such central laws, including the right to education, have been extended to J&K. This has immensely benefitted the people here.”
He stated that the second major objective behind abrogation was to ensure full integration of J&K with India. “Even on this account, I observe we have achieved success to a great extent. Recently, as a part of the countrywide “Har Ghar Tiranga” campaign, the tricolour was hoisted over 17 lakh places across the Kashmir Valley, out of them, around 6.30 lakh people hoisted it on their own houses,” Sinha said.
YOUTH WANT TO BE PART OF “CHANGE” COUNTRY IS EXPERIENCING
When his attention was sought towards “people’s perspective that the stone-pelting strikes had become a thing of the past in Kashmir because of scare and not as a natural outcome of abrogation of Article 370”, LG Sinha did not agree with this contention.
“Hartals (strikes) lasting for 100 days, closure of schools, colleges, business establishments and stalling of transport….used to be a normal thing here. But now the people, particularly the youth, have become fed up with this phenomenon. They want to be part of the change the country is experiencing today on its path to revolutionary development. Their ambitions too are scaling new heights. There are still few people, who work at the behest of the neighbour, and spread propaganda,” Sinha said.
WILL TALK TO YOUTH OF J&K, NOT PAKISTAN
The Lieutenant Governor refused to respond to a question with regard to the PDP president Mehbooba Mufti’s call for “talks with Pakistan to resolve Kashmir for once and all.” However, he asserted that the talks, if needed, would be held with the youth of J&K and not with Pakistan as it (talks with Pakistan) would, in any case, be a futile exercise.
With regard to increase in unemployment in J&K despite the claims of an overwhelming response vis-a-vis industrial investment in the UT, LG Sinha stated, “I will not question the statistics by the agency though I fail to understand as on what basis it shows steep rise in unemployment rate here in J&K every month.” He said that around 5-6 lakh J&K youth would get employment with industrial investment of around Rs 70,000 – 75,000 Cr.,
ON KHURRAM PARVEZ
In response to a question about the alleged “attempts by the government to tighten noose around human rights activists, including Khurram Parvez, by putting them in detention on frivolous charges to frighten others raising rights violation issues, also”, LG Sinha said that there were ample evidences against him (Khurram).
“They wear the facade of human rights activists. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has produced a chargesheet against him and six others,” he said while mentioning the charges and sections invoked against him.
EXAM FOR SIs’ POSTS IN OCTOBER
Responding to a separate question, he announced that the government would conduct the examination for the posts of Sub-Inspectors in Jammu and Kashmir Police (JKP), which was cancelled following complaints and the CBI probe was also ordered, in October. “Those deserving will come out with flying colours yet again. They will qualify it again but those running rackets will have to face the music,” he said.