April 18th, 2016 will go down as a day of great significance for the State of Jammu and Kashmir. In the small but picturesque village of Kakryal – five kilometers from Katra in the lap of pristine nature, the Prime Minister, the Chief Minister, the Governor, and a galaxy of entourage drawn from various branches of administration and society came together to effect two historical events. The Prime Minister formally inaugurated Rs 300 crore worth 230-bed Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Narayana Super Specialty Hospital and Sports Complex undertaken by Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board. In his brief address, Governor N.N Vohra, who is also the Chairman of the Shrine Board,said that the Shrine Board hospital has been constructed at the cost of Rs 300 crores and Sports Complex for Rs 15 crores.
The Prime Minister was informed about the state-of-the-art diagnostic and treatment equipments including Ultra Modern ICUs with ventilators, defibrillators, multipara monitoring system, centralized gas supply, 128 slice CT scan, 1.5 Tesla MRI, Colour Doppler, Ultrasound, Digital X-ray, Mammography, C-Arm, ECG, Echo, TMT and Pulmonary Function Test are available in the Hospital. The people in rural areas of Jammu have been provided with a super-specialty hospital run by a very famous chain with best expertise in the country.
In his 24-minute inaugural address to a large gathering and a galaxy of dignitaries, the Prime Minister said that his Government’s policy towards J&K State would be solidly along the well-known formula spelt out by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and that was of “Insaniyat, Kashmiriyat and Jamhuriyat”. These are the pillars of development. He added his own recipe of “Sab ka sath sab ka vikas”. In extraordinary emphatic and confident mood, the Prime Minister said that the solution of the problems of Jammu and Kashmir is development (vikas). He meant all round development and balanced development which would take all three units of the State into consideration so that no region felt deprived or discriminated against. He gave full assurance to the State Chief Minister of his Government’s support in changing the face of the State and wished that he could fulfill the dream of late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed of making J&K a model state in India. Without mincing words, the Prime Minister said that he was greatly encouraged by the thinking and approach of J&K Chief Minister as she spoke of development, of building roads, bridges, and basic infrastructure. In a patriotic vein, the Prime Minister made a mention of former Governor Jagmohan in laudable words saying that way back in 1986 he had laid the basis of the Shrine Board of Mata Vaishno Devi and conceived the vision of developing this religious site into a religious cum tourist site. Today it has emerged as one of the leading religious-tourism sites in the country. Praiseworthy works of public utility had been undertaken by the Board like the hospital, the university, the sports complex and above all extraordinarily arrangement at the shrine complex that provides convenience to the pilgrims coming from distant corners of the country.
J&K had tremendous capacity for developing and expanding tourist industry, and once the rail link between Jammu and Srinagar/Baramulla via Katra and Qazigund becomes functional, it is bound to give boost to the tourist industry as well. The time of travel and distance from Jammu to Srinagar will be reduced almost by one half and any pilgrim coming to the shrine of Mata Vaisho Devi will like to pay a visit to Kashmir Valley also. Therefore all energies had to be diverted to the development and expansion of tourist industry in the State as it had great potential.
Addressing the gathering on the occasion, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said that in many Islamic countries there was violence and innocent people were killed. On the other hand, she said she was proud to be an Indian, where people of different faiths live in peace and tranquility. She said that she was pained by the killing of the youth in the course of action by security forces and she had urged the Prime Minister that all precautionary measures had to be taken to ensure that no innocent life is destroyed…
The function pertaining to inauguration of the hospital and sports complex in Katra has significance as it depicted complete understanding between the Centre and the State Government in almost all major issues especially those pertaining to the development, employment and eradication of poverty in the State. This mutual understanding will go a long way in helping the State wriggle out of economic backwardness and construct a bright future for the youth who are gifted with potential for big things.
The second event viz. the convocation of the Mata Vaishno Devi University was also a remarkable event of which the University authorities and the entire nation were proud. Both the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister particularly and specifically expressed their happiness that the girl students had performed far better than boy students and that was a very healthy sign of this prestigious educational institution. A large number of students had obtained their higher educational degrees from this university and now many of them were at high and important positions in the country. A peculiarity of the university in the words of the Prime Minister was that a good number of students from other parts of the country had sought admission in this university in various departments and they are performing very well. The Prime Minister has rightly advised the students to develop the spirit of nationalism and help others as they themselves were helped to have access to the highest institute of excellence. India was poised to be the store house of knowledge in years to come. 800 million youth of the country below the age of 35 is a tremendous potential and as the country is imparting education, skills, professionalism and the spirit of deduction to the nation to this huge humanity, we are expecting India to be at the top in next few years.
Congratulating the students who were awarded degrees, the Prime Minister advised them not to consider this event as an end but a new beginning to face new challenges and move forward.
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