J&K poised for peace, development

If the manner and the enthusiasm with which Republic Day celebrations took place in Jammu and Kashmir this year , who would doubt that a new dawn of peace , hope, progress and development was not on the anvil. The taste of pudding, it is said, is in its eating and that was seen in Bakshi Stadium Srinagar on this Republic Day as compared to previous years . There were no boycott calls from militants and militant organisations, there was no call for any Hartal , there was no fear lurking or apparent, which could keep participants from actively contributing their bit of presentation and of involvement in the celebrations. Yes, it could happen not entirely because of the incidents of militancy having come down unexpectedly drastically towards which the Lieutenant Governor referred to in his first Republic Day message to the people of Jammu and Kashmir, but because of the perceptible change in the mind-set of the people.
In Jammu , it was as usual celebrated with fervour and patriotic zeal , even in all district headquarters. Hardly any institution , any locality , any social gathering would have been left out where the flag was not unfurled amid chanting of patriotic slogans and distribution of sweets and exchanging greetings.
While the youth of the Union Territory had greater expectations from the Government to address their issues especially concerning their careers and livelihood, the Lt. Governor in his message disclosed that the Government was seriously working on “Mission for Youth”, a novel and unique initiative for them. That had in its bosom, opportunities of livelihood, skill development, education, sports promotion, financial assistance, recreation, counselling and the like. Those members of the youth who were lured to walk into the destructive trap of violence and gun culture must see reason and understand the motive of those elements working for enemies of Jammu and Kashmir, which wanted these youth to be used as fodder canon to meet their obnoxious political ends and must choose what was right for them and their families.
It goes to the credit of the erstwhile State Government under Governor that despite on-going militancy, there was no let-up in developmental activities which presently under Lieutenant Governor , were going on with zeal and requisite tempo but the fact remains that with greater peace and tranquillity , more could be done and expected too from the factor endowments . Hence there being no place or scope for violence , peace was the only concomitant to touch higher scales of growth and all round development. The constitutional changes, despite avowed criticism, had opened new vistas of hope and development and the gains emanating from this change needed to be capitalised to find new opportunities , chances and probabilities.
Could the efforts of the Government in this regard alone bring about necessary changes especially wiping out the scars of cross border terrorism which for over three decades ravaged and destroyed opportunities, prospects and ways leading to sustained development, the Lt. Governor addressed this issue by exhorting people to “come forward” to supplement initiatives of the Government.

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