Avtar Bhat
JAMMU/PANAJI, Sept 3: ISIS is not an immediate threat to Jammu and Kashmir State and the few people who display ISIS flags during prayers would stop doing it if media stops paying attention to them, Deputy Chief Minister, Nirmal Singh said in Panaji today.
“Only one or two people did it (displaying ISIS flags during prayers). There are thousands of people who come for prayers and out of them only two to three people carried ISIS flag in their pocket to get media attention,” Singh said, responding to a question during a press conference here, today.
Singh was in Goa to participate in the 16th Regulators and Policymakers’ Retreat 2015 which began today.
“Pakistan has made a number of attempts to push militants into India. ISIS is not an immediate threat and people are merely using ISIS flags to send out a message. “We have seen that in recent past the other terrorist organizations have also been reduced,” Dr Singh said, addressing a press conference at a local BJP office here.
“These people (showing ISIS flags) have been doing it only for media attention. They will stop doing it if you don’t pay much attention to them,” he said, adding that such publicity sends out wrong signals, since it scares people from other States who would like to visit Jammu and Kashmir.
Singh said that any withdrawal of the military from the State should not be a political decision.
“How much security is required in the State should not be a political decision. That is why the J&K Government does not have any opinion on the issue. It is the experts who will decide,” he said.
He said State’s special status has boosted the morale of the separatists.
“J&K’s special status has had a psychological impact. People feel that they are not fully part of the mainstream. This has boosted the morale of separatists,” he added.
“Since the 1990s, until recently, terrorism was a big concern. J&K’s economy and society were disturbed, but today I can say that the situation has changed. We have seen some incidents on the border but when the media covers them, it gives the impression as if it happens all over J&K,” the Deputy Chief Minister said.
Stressing on exploiting natural resources of electricity generation, Deputy Chief Minister said that the J&K has a lot of potential of power generation but it was not properly exploited till date to overcome the shortage of electricity in the State.
Addressing the inaugural session of four -day long conference on how to boost the power generation organized by Independent Power Producers Association at Panaji the Capital of Goa this evening, Dr Singh said that the coalition Government will take all efforts to tap the natural resources of Hydro electricity generation in the J&K as the State has ample natural resources for it.
He said there are three types of power generation in the country including renewable power generation, wind power generation and Hydro- power generation and it needed to be exploited fully.
The Deputy CM said that J&K has a potential of generation 20,000 mws of power and out of it only nominal possibility has been explored till date. He said with the commissioning of Baglihar-II, the power generation will be better to some extent in the State and Government will take all measures to exploit maximum resources of power generation in the State.
In this regard he said that the work on Rattle Project in Kishtwar will be resumed soon and the work on Pakal Dul Power Project also in the same area will be started at the earliest. Besides, the Government will also take initiative of constructing new power projects on Jhelum, Sindh and Chenab rivers in the State and the possibility of constructing some micro power projects will also be explored, he added.
He said the Central and State Governments are working in close coordination as how to exploit the potential of power generation in the State so that J&K will not only be self sufficient and cater its own needs but can also supply power to other States to generate more revenue and boost its economy.
He said the coalition has already started a scheme of providing 24X7 power supply in the State and in the first instance some areas will be chosen on experimental basis in this regard and later it will be implemented in entire State to relieve the people of the present problem.
The conference besides private producers was attended by Power Ministers of States and top officials of Power Ministries from different States. The main focus of the conference is how to increase the power generation and how to cover the uncovered areas besides how to supply the power on cheap rates to consumers.
Dr Singh also discussed possibilities of boosting tourist industry in the State during his meeting with Chief Minister of Goa, Laxmikant Pareskar later. Dr Singh who called on Goa CM discussed several issues with him. The two leaders agreed that both the States have lot of potential in tourism industry and with their mutual cooperation tourist trade can be boosted in both the States.
The Deputy CM also said that both the States will make efforts in increasing the Goa to Srinagar flights via Mumbai. Presently only one flight runs from Srinagar to Goa and both the states will approach Centre in this regard.
Moreover, the experts in tourism sector from the two States will visit each others State to explore the possibilities of increasing tourism. Besides, the efforts will be made to attract the foreign tourists visiting Goa to J&K to visit the tourist resorts in Jammu, Ladakh and Kashmir valley.
Dr Singh said over one crore pilgrims visit Mata Vaishno Devi annually and efforts will be made to divert them towards the other religious places of Jammu like Shiv Khori, Budha Amarnath and other shrines. He said it was a matter of great satisfaction that this year holy Amarnath yatra passed incident free and 3.5 lakh pilgrims paid obeisance in cave shrine.
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