Excelsior Correspondent
BILLAWAR, Mar 23: Hitting out at Congress, Union Minister, Dr Jitendra Singh who is also BJP candidate for Udhampur, Kathua, Doda Lok Sabha constituency said though there were public representatives and ministers from this constituency as well as Jammu region in the Government at that time when new districts for erstwhile State were created but they never bothered to put the demand of granting hill district status to Billawar just to appease their political bosses. Click here to watch video
Addressing a series of public meetings at various locations in the Billawar Assembly constituency including Salla , Nagrota Mandi , Phinter, Billawar city, Baddu, Parnala etc, Dr Jitendra Singh said though BJP in its organizational setup has given district status to Billawar -Basholi but it is unfortunate while smallest areas were converted into districts in Kashmir Valley the Billawar and other adjoining tehsils of this region which have huge area and population were neglected on political and vote bank considerations.
He said the Committee which was formed by then Congress Government also failed to give justice to this region while the public representative from the area and Ministers from Jammu region did not think it appropriate to vouch for this genuine demand. He alleged this way Congress party deliberately denied district status to Billawar.
At each of these above locations where Dr Jitendra Singh stopped to meet the BJP Karyakartas and supporters, there was a thunderous applause hailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi with slogans of “Abki Baar 400 Paar” and eulogising the development and welfare works done in the constituency by Dr Jitendra Singh during the last 10 years.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, in the BJP’s organisational structure, a separate hill district comprising of Billawar, Basohli and Bani regions was carved out nearly two decades back and since then in the BJP hierarchy there is a separate district President for Kathua and a separate district President for the hill district of Billawar region.
Dr Jitendra Singh recalled that when the District Reorganisation Committee was constituted under the Congress led coalition Government, BJP as opposition party had reiterated this demand but the ruling Congress Government carved out ten districts each for Jammu Province and Kashmir Province without following any laid down or transparent parameters. While in the Kashmir valley even small districts were further divided into two or three smaller districts, in the Jammu province the visibly large district of Kathua was allowed to remain the same and BJP’s demand for a separate hill district was ignored, he said.
Dr Jitendra Singh accused the Congress and its allies of following a policy of appeasement and regional discrimination, as a result of which the district status for Billawar was deliberately denied. He said, it is an irony that for several years, Congress MLAs elected from this region were part of the Government as State Ministers but they too did not take up this cause because they were more concerned about securing their ministerial berths by keeping their masters in good human.
In the last 10 years after Narendra Modi took over as Prime Minister, Dr Jitendra Singh said, there has been a continuous attempt to make up for the lapses of the past and to ensure equitable development of all the regions. As a result of this, he said, for the first time after independence today we have a network of roads in the region and one can drive down from Jammu to Billawar in just about two and half hour which was unimaginable before 2014.
As for the popular demand for Bala Sundri tunnel, Dr Jitendra Singh said, this too was ignored by the earlier Governments. Only after Prime Minister Modi came, this project got approved but was delayed for certain reasons and now it would be taken by the National Highway Authority of India, he said.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
