JK News Today
Union Home Minister Amit Shah has sought to do the course-correction on many issues confronting Jammu and Kashmir, and the best thing he has done is to clear many doubts in the minds of the people of the state and also in the rest of the country. Nothing is half-hearted in the new central government’s approach toward the state that has been at the receiving end of Pakistan sponsored terrorism for the past three decades and has also suffered because of the bloodshed and the terror becoming biggest hurdles in putting J&K on track of development and meeting aspirations of the youth. This state of affairs of J&K of the past 30 years and even before that has stigmatized it as if it is a perennial basket case economically, and socially it has deranged as it has lost all the values of democracy and communal harmony, and politically it is now a case where anti-India miscreants have had field day. The Home Minister has vowed to remove this stigma and get the state back on the track like all other states where governance and development go hand in hand unhindered by the problems that J&K is faced with. His pledge is to remove all the irritants and black sheep by pursuing a relentless fight against terrorism, upholding the zero-tolerance policy to terrorism. The new dimension of this policy against terrorism is evident by the kind of aerial strike in Balakot terror training camp in Pakistan on February 26 within 12 days of the terror attack in Pulwama. The fight has been taken deep inside the terror camps in Pakistan, killing terrorists and destroying the terror infrastructure without causing any harm to civilians anywhere. Similar thing was done in September 2016 when the Indian army conducted surgical strike across the LoC on September 29 after the attack on Uri camp on September 18.
This fight against terrorism has not been allowed to overshadow the developmental programmes. Various schemes under the huge Rs.80, 000 core package announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 7, 2015 in Srinagar has picked up- pace. The democracy has been inspired at the grassroots level with the holding of the panchayat elections and empowering more than 40,000 Panchs and sarpanchs across the state. This is no mean feat. Added to this is the Centre’s commitment to give more and more funds for the development, but one thing that is more than crystal clear that all the central funding will have accountability too. This is how Amit Shah has set the ball rolling for improving conditions in J&K where common people can breathe easily and realize their aspirations as well without any fear.
