‘Modi Govt reaching out to remotest of remote’
Avtar Bhat
UDHAMPUR, Sept 6: Turning tables on Congress and National Conference (NC) leadership, Union Minister in PMO with Independent Charge of Science and Technology, Dr Jitendra Singh today accused them of deliberately ignoring the remote areas for vote bank politics during over their six decades rules.
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a public rally held in the peripheral hilly location of Dudu in the higher reaches of the district Udhampur today, Dr Jitendra Singh said these remote areas were totally ignored for decades together by the two parties for vote bank consideration.
In this regard, he cited the example of tourist resort of Mantalai and religious place of Devika in Udhampur district and alleged the previous Government including both NC and Congress deliberately ignored them as they were not interested in the development of these areas for obvious reasons.
Dr Jitendra Singh said that the land of Mantlai has been leased out during the Government of former Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi to Yoga Guru Dhirendra Brahmchari who had initiated this project which was patronized by then Congress Government but after his death in an air accident over three decades back no body followed it and Congress Government did not care for the project and it was in shambles. But soon after the Narendra Modi Government took over special allocation of funds was made for this world state of art Project and Wellness Centre which will boost economy of the area as well.
Similarly, Devika, which has lot of religious significance for the people belonging to Hindu religion could have been rejuvenated much earlier but no body in previous Governments thought about it, Dr Jitendra Singh said, adding the Narendra Modi Government gave priority to Devika rejuvenation on the pattern of Ganga Rejuvenation Project and a long drawn dream of the people has been fulfilled by Modi Government this way.
Dr Jitendra Singh said under Modi the policy of Government has been to fill up the gaps wherever they were found and this was considered the main priority of the present Government at Centre. He said earlier these areas were never visited by the senior leaders of the ruling parties.
Earlier, while addressing enthusiastic public rally, Dr Jitendra Singh said Modi Government is reaching out to the remotest of the remote and seeking to make up for the negligence of over six decades meted out to far flung regions by the past Governments led by Congress and National Conference.
Dr Jitendra Singh said Dudu and other such hilly regions were endowed with amazing mountainous beauty and mountainous resources. Nature, he said, had bestowed in abundance but were they faced injustice in the hands of their own elected governments headed by Congress and National Conference, which did not find them of much consequence because of the vote bank consideration.
Referring to district Udhampur, he said the development of the last eight years under Prime Minister Narendra Modi far surpasses the development of the past several decades. For the last three years, he pointed out, Udhampur has been figuring as the top district of the country in implementation of Centrally funded PMGSY road projects. Similarly, several important new National Highways are under construction in the region which include Sudhmahadev-Marmat-Goha-Khelani and Lakhanpur-Bani-Bhaderwah-Doda. He informed that the Chattergala Tunnel enroute the second highway got delayed because of the heavy budget of over Rs.4,000 crore, but will now be taken under Bharatmala scheme.
Udhampur, said Dr Jitendra Singh, is perhaps the only Lok Sabha constituency in the country which received three Centrally funded Medical Colleges in recent years. In addition, there was a chain of important projects and Kendriya Vidyalaya set up in and around this hilly region.
The Minister inaugurated a mega Multi Specialty Medical Camp organised by the Indian Army through Command Hospital Udhampur. Specialist doctors from different streams including Medicines, Paediatrics, ENT, Ophthalmology, Gynaecology, Dermatology, etc. attended to the patients who turned up in large numbers from all the surrounding villages. Dr Jitendra Singh thanked Air Commander General Dwivedi and the medical team led by Major General Dr. Dash for providing health care facilities to the people who were actually in need but sometimes found it difficult to access it.
A large number of local body reps including BDC, DDCs Sarpanches and Panches met Dr Jitendra Singh after the rally. The Minister assured them that he and his office is always in touch with them and they were free to approach him whenever required. He also issued on the spot instructions to the civil administration to resolve some of the issues related to forest clearance etc. which were delaying Central road projects etc.
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