NEW DELHI, October 7 : Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh today held a luncheon interaction with IAS, IPS and also some Indian Forest Service officers belonging to erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir cadre, and presently posted in the national capital.
During the interaction, Dr Jitendra Singh said, Prime Minister Narendra Modi accords highest priority to Jammu & Kashmir and therefore it is the added responsibility of All India Service officers to strive to transform it into one of the best governed States/UTs of the country. He said, Jammu & Kashmir is witnessing a new dawn of development and peace.
The Minister expressed happiness that from January, 2022 till date, 1.62 crore tourists have visited J&K, which is the highest in 75 years of independence.
Dr Jitendra Singh noted that after three decades, Kashmir valley is attracting lakhs of tourists, which not only heralds the return of golden era of Kashmir tourism, but also underlines the overall peace, development and change happening fast in the Union territory. The Minister pointed out that Modi also fulfilled 70 year old demand of Kashmiris for international flights by starting direct flights from Srinagar.
Dr Jitendra Singh was in Jammu and Srinagar on Tuesday and Wednesday in view of Home Minister Shri Amit Shah’s visit, where Paharis were assured of ST status like the Gujjars, Bakerwals said that since Article 370 was rolled back, over Rs 56,000 crore investment reached J&K opening new frontiers of job opportunities for the youth in the UT.
Dr Jitendra Singh also underlined that the new comprehensive Film Policy launched with much fanfare is attracting film-makers for shooting after decades and within a year of notification of this policy, as many as 140 shooting permissions for films and web-series have been issued. He said, there is a proposal to set up a film studio with state-of-art facilities catering to the young talent of Jammu and Kashmir.
Dr Jitendra Singh also informed the senior officers of IAS, IPS and IFoS from erstwhile J&K cadre that deputation rules of Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) have been relaxed to encourage IAS and other All India Service Officers as well as officers of Central Services to get posted in J&K. He informed that due to this relaxation, 22 officers belonging to various services and different cadres have been posted in Jammu & Kashmir at various levels.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, DoPT has played a major role in facilitating induction of Jammu & Kashmir Administrative Services Officers into IAS by coordinating with UT of J&K, Ministry of Home Affairs and UPSC. As a result recently 16 officers from JKAS have been inducted into IAS and another 8 such vacancies will be filled up shortly giving opportunities to the JKAS officers to become part of prestigious IAS service after a long gap of 12 years. The Minister also added that Mid-Career Training of JKAS officers of various seniority was carried out in collaboration with LBSNAA and this has provided a new level of exposure to the JKAS Officers and more than 200 offices.
Senior IAS officers including Pradip Kumar Tripathi, Secretary, (Coordination) in Cabinet Secretariat, Sundeep Kumar Nayak, Director General, National Productivity Council (NPC), Department for Promotion of Industry & Internal Trade, Shantmanu,Development Commissioner (Handicrafts), Manoj Kumar Dwivedi Joint Secretary DoPT, Dr. Mandeep Kumar Bhandari, Niraj Kumar ARC, JK House among others exchanged views with Dr Jitendra Singh over a luncheon meeting at his residence.
The IPS officers posted in crucial organisations like CBI, NIA, BSF, ITBP, CRPF, SSB were also present at the interaction. S.M. Sahai, Joint Secretary, Lalatendu Mohanti, DG, BSF Academy, Pankaj Saxena, Joint Secretary, Abdul Ghani Mir, IG, ITBP, Rajesh Kumar, ADGP, CRPF, T. Namgyal Kalon, IG, SSB, Viplav Kumar Choudhry, DIG, NIA, Vidhi Kumar Birdi, DIG, NIA, Shri Amit Kumar, DIG, NIA, Keshav Ram Chaurasia, DIG, CBI, Tejinder Singh, SP, NIA, Shailendra Kumar Mishra, SP, NIA, Rajiv Omparkash Pande, SP, NIA, Nitish Kumar, S.P. Pani, Atul Kumar Goel, Rahul Malik, Ambarkar Shriram Dinkar, Uttam Chand joined the interaction.
Among the Indian Forest officers, Biswajit Kumar Singh, Dr. Rajeev Kumar Tiwari, Mrs. Roop Avtar Kaur, Preet Pal Singh, Naveen Kumar Shah, Praveen Kumar Raghaw, Mohammad Sajid Sultan took part in the deliberations.