Kishtwar, Oct 23: Addressing a BJP meeting here Sunday, Union Minister of State Dr Jitendra Singh said that during the Congress and National Conference regimes in the past, there was not a single occasion when the region was not represented both in the State as well as Central cabinet by senior leaders from here, but in spite of that the area did not receive the kind of attention it deserves.
He hoped that one day the future historians will seek to analyse the political mindset of these parties which allowed the peripheral region to suffer because of vote bank, caste and religious considerations.
Dr Jitendra Singh urged the BJP workers and other like minded people to go to masses and educate them about the series of development projects brought up during the Modi regime and a conscious effort to give equitable treatment to all sections of society regardless of caste, creed or religion.
This is a new political culture which has sought to be introduced in the last eight years wherein the elected representatives including the MPs are expected to serve the cause of every section of society regardless of whether it had voted for them or not, he added.
Dr Jitendra Singh accused the earlier governments of not only being reluctant to initiate new projects but held them responsible for even holding up the ongoing projects. Citing instances, he said, it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who launched the Pakal Dul Power Project and it was his intervention which enabled the clearing of decks for starting the Kiru Power Project. Not only this, he said, the Rattle Project had been stalled by the earlier government for frivolous reasons and it has been revived now, as a result of which the Kishtwar would be generating more than 6000 MegaWatt electricity and also providing electricity to the regions outside Kishtwar.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, in the past nobody had thought of the hardship and inconvenience that had to be endured by pilgrims during the annual Machail Yatra.
He said, it was only after 2014 when he became MP that their cause was taken up and for the first time the toilets were installed enroute the Machail Yatra bringing great relief particularly to women pilgrims and at the same time, mobile towers were brought up in the area while before that the pilgrims on Machail yatra would get totally disconnected from the rest of the word during the entire course of the Yatra.
Dr Jitendra Singh announced that in the course of developing the Machail yatra region, two important decisions have been taken. One, there will be an exclusive 1 MW Solar power plant installed in Machail, secondly Machail will be included in the new tourist circuit, he added.
Dr Jitendra Singh also informed that strict instructions have been issued to give employment in the upcoming power projects only to the local youth and local candidates. However, he said, there have been some complaints but that was due to lack of transparency. Therefore, he had suggested that a Committee of civil society be formed which can coordinate with the Deputy Commissioner for the scrutiny of the appointments being made.
