‘Youth will take State on path of progress’
Decision purely domestic one, will benefit people
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Aug 12: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said today post-abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution of India, leading entrepreneurs have already expressed their interest in investing in Jammu and Kashmir and voiced confidence that “open minds and open markets” will ensure that youth will take the State on the path of greater progress.
Reacting to scrapping of Special Constitutional provisions of Jammu and Kashmir including Articles 370 and 35A, which were done away with by President Ram Nath Kovind and the Parliament on August 7, Modi made it clear that the Government decision on (abrogation of) Article 370 was purely a domestic one and hoped that it will benefit the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
Modi made these remarks in an interview given to a national English news daily.
“I want to be clear that our decision on Article 370 is purely a domestic one. Let me tell you I have taken this decision after great deal of thought and I am quite certain about it. And will take it forward for benefit of the people,” the Prime Minister said.
Replying to a question on his call for investments into Jammu and Kashmir and building a `Naya Kashmir’, Modi said he was very confident of this happening. In fact, he added, leading entrepreneurs have already expressed their interest in investing in Jammu and Kashmir.
Maintaining that in today’s world, economic growth can’t happen in a closed environment, he said that “open minds and open markets” will ensure that the youth of the region will put it on the path of greater progress.
“Integration gives a boost to investment, innovation and incomes,” he said.
The Prime Minister said investments needs certain conditions like stability, market access and predictable laws being some of them.
“The recent decision on (scrapping) Article 370 has ensured all these are present (in Jammu and Kashmir) and so investment will definitely flow, especially since the region offers investment opportunities in various domains like tourism, agriculture, Information Technology and healthcare to name a few,” Modi said and added that this will develop an ecosystem which will give better rewards to the skills, hard work and products of the people in the region.
The Prime Minister observed that better avenues of education like IIT, IIM, AIIMS etc will not only give more educational opportunities to the youth but also give the region a better workforces.
He also mentioned in detail how the better connectivity, linkages and investment will help productions of Jammu and Kashmir reach not only across the country but the world as well.
“Connectivity related projects like roads or new rail lines, modernization of the Airports, all of these are being accelerated. Better connectivity, linkages and better investment will help products of Jammu and Kashmir reach across the country and the world, leading to a virtuous cycle of growth and prosperity to the common man,” Modi told the interviewer.
The Prime Minister said: “The performance of our Government during the last five years has shown the scale, speed and direction in which we work. This has given a new benchmark for the country to judge the performance of the Government. I consider it a very positive development that there are a lot of expectations from us even though we have not yet completed even first 100 days of the new Government”.
He said strong and sound economic fundamentals coupled with stable Government with increased majority are the reasons for this kind of high expectations.
“I would request experts to see this Government as a Government in continuity from last five years, and not in isolation. Similarly, with respect to economic policy, I would request people to analyze the impact of two budgets together – one presented in February and another one in July 2019,” he added.
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