Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Friday met civil servants of the Jammu and Kashmir cadre at his residence in the national capital and discussed the priorities of the government for the Union territory and several issues with the officials.
The Minister held a luncheon interaction with Indian Administrative Service (IAS), the Indian Police Service (IPS) and also some Indian Forest Service officers belonging to the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir cadre and presently posted in the national capital. During the interaction, Singh said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi accords highest priority to Jammu and Kashmir and therefore it is the added responsibility of All India Service officers to strive to transform it into one of the best-governed States and UTs of the country.”
“Jammu and Kashmir highest priority of Prime Minister. Therefore, from time to time, he has also raised concerns about the situation in Jammu and Kashmir and also reviewed it. He also stayed there and two days ago Home Minister Amit Shah had a very successful stay in UT,” said the Union Minister.
He said that Jammu and Kashmir is witnessing new dawn of development and peace.
“Today I interacted with the cadres of Jammu and Kashmir, who are currently posted in Delhi. Some information was taken from them. They were made aware of the priorities of the government of India towards Jammu and Kashmir because Union Territory is witnessing new dawn of development and peace,” said Singh.
He further said that Jammu and Kashmir has become an integral part of India’s development journey under the leadership of PM Modi.
Singh also informed the senior officers of IAS, IPS and IFoS from erstwhile J-K cadre that deputation rules of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) have been relaxed to encourage IAS and other All India Service Officers as well as officers of Central Services to get posted in J-K.
He informed that due to this relaxation, 22 officers belonging to various services and different cadres have been posted in Jammu and Kashmir at various levels.
“DoPT has played a major role in facilitating induction of Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Services Officers into IAS by coordinating with UT of J-K, Ministry of Home Affairs and UPSC. As a result, recently 16 officers from JKAS have been inducted into IAS and another eight such vacancies will be filled up shortly giving opportunities to the JKAS officers to become part of prestigious IAS service after a long gap of 12 years,” he said.
The Union Minister also added that Mid-Career Training of JKAS officers of various seniority was carried out in collaboration with LBSNAA and this has provided a new level of exposure to the JKAS Officers and more than 200 offices.
According to the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, he also expressed happiness that from January 2022 till date, 1.62 crore tourists have visited Jammu and Kashmir, which is the highest in 75 years of India’s independence.
“After three decades, Kashmir Valley is attracting lakhs of tourists, which not only heralds the return of the golden era of Kashmir tourism but also underlines the overall peace, development and change happening rapidly in the Union territory,” he said.
The Minister pointed out that PM Modi also fulfilled the 70-year-old demand of Kashmiris for international flights by starting direct flights from Srinagar to Sharjah.
Singh was in Jammu and Srinagar on Tuesday and Wednesday in view of Home Minister Amit Shah’s visit, where Paharis were assured of ST status like the Gujjars, Backcrawls and said that since Article 370 was rolled back, over Rs 56,000 crore investment reached Jammu and Kashmir opening new frontiers of job opportunities for the youth in the UT.
“The new comprehensive Film Policy launched with much fanfare is attracting filmmakers for shooting after decades and within a year of notification of this policy, as many as 140 shooting permissions for films and web series have been issued. There is a proposal to set up a film studio with state-of-art facilities catering to the young talent of Jammu and Kashmir,” he added.
Senior IAS officers including Pradip Kumar Tripathi, Secretary, (Coordination) in Cabinet Secretariat, Sundeep Kumar Nayak, Director General, National Productivity Council (NPC), Department for Promotion of Industry & Internal Trade, Shantmanu, Development Commissioner (Handicrafts), Manoj Kumar Dwivedi Joint Secretary DoPT, Dr Mandeep Kumar Bhandari, Niraj Kumar ARC, JK House among others exchanged views with Singh over a luncheon meeting at his residence.
The IPS officers posted in crucial organisations like the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), National Investigation Agency (NIA), Border Security Force (BSF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) were also present at the interaction.
SM Sahai, Joint Secretary, Lalatendu Mohanti, DG, BSF Academy, Pankaj Saxena, Joint Secretary, Abdul Ghani Mir, IG, ITBP, Rajesh Kumar, ADGP, CRPF, T Namgyal Kalon, IG, SSB, Viplav Kumar Choudhry, DIG, NIA, Vidhi Kumar Birdi, DIG, NIA, Shri Amit Kumar, DIG, NIA, Keshav Ram Chaurasia, DIG, CBI, Tejinder Singh, SP, NIA, Shailendra Kumar Mishra, SP, NIA, Rajiv Omparkash Pande SP, NIA Nitish Kumar, S. Pani, Atul Kumar Goel, Rahul Malik, Ambarkar Shriram Dinkar, Uttam Chand joined the interaction.
Among the Indian Forest officers, Biswajit Kumar Singh, Dr Rajeev Kumar Tiwari, Roop Avtar Kaur, Preet Pal Singh, Naveen Kumar Shah, Praveen Kumar Raghaw, Mohammad Sajid Sultan took part in the deliberations. (ANI)
