Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said here today that Article 370 blocked the Northeast’s successful initiatives from being introduced in Jammu & Kashmir, for reasons which were frivolous or self-righteous. As a result, he said, while in the last five years, with the personal indulgence and patronage from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the North Eastern region of India underwent revolutionary transformation which is being lauded all over, unfortunately Jammu & Kashmir, despite several similarities with the Northeast, could not avail of the highest priority accorded by the Modi government to far flung and peripheral States. Speaking to media after presiding over a meeting of senior officials of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DONER) and the North Eastern Council (NEC), Dr Jitendra Singh disclosed that a team of DoNER Ministry has been deputed to tour J&K and suggest how best the Northeast’s successful initiatives in areas like fruit industry, handicraft, horticulture, handloom, organic farming, home-tourism, bamboo entrepreneurship,rural livelihood, etc could be replicated in J&K and Ladakh. The Northeast model of development is there before us and there is no reason why it cannot be implemented in Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, he said. Dr Jitendra Singh said, in many ways Jammu & Kashmir suffers from lesser constraints compared to North Eastern region. For example, he said, J&K has much better connectivity with frequent rail service and short duration air flights as well as all-weather four-lane road connection with the rest of the country. In spite of this, he said, the question that we must address is why J&K could not be benefited by an equal transformational progress compared to possibly more difficult terrain of North Eastern region. When the Modi government came in 2014, Dr Jitendra Singh said, there were at least two to three States in the Northeast including Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya where people had never seen a train. Today there is regular Arunachal Express train running from Itanagar to New Delhi and a double track lane is being laid down in Meghalaya. For 40 years after Sikkim became a part of India, he said, there was no airport in the State, but for the last one year, there is an airport set up at in Pakyong, Sikkim while new airports are coming up at Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh and Shillong in Meghalaya, even as Guwahati has emerged as one of the most important international airports of India. In Northeast, Dr Jitendra Singh said, liberal investments are being made by businessmen, not only from India but also from abroad. While Japan has invested heavily in infrastructure development in Manipur, Israel has set up the first of its kind “Citrus Fruit Park” “Centre of Excellence” in the remotest state of Mizoram, he added. Dr Jitendra Singh said, Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh were denied of the enormous transformation brought about by the Modi government and expressed confidence that after the abrogation of Article 370 and reorganization of the region after 31st October, Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh will be able to progress at the same pace and scale.
