Srinagar: Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, said on Thursday that organized shutdowns and protests and stone-pelting is now a bygone tale of Jammu and Kashmir whereas the region has after the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019 also seen a seventy percent decrease in the terrorism-related incidents.
“In the past, bullets, stone pelting and strikes were normal in Kashmir, but post- Article 370 abrogation the situation has changed. Such things have been replaced by uninterrupted classwork in schools and normal functioning of medical colleges and industries,” he said after launched e-bus service in Jammu and distributing 209 job letters to J&K combined examination-2024 pass outs and compassionate appointments to 885 other people through video conferencing from New Delhi.
He said, “As a result of the Prime Minister, Narendra Modiji’s, efforts, a new era of peace and security has started in J&K. After the abrogation of Article 370, there has been a 70 percent decline in total terrorism-related incidents, an 81 percent reduction in civilian deaths, and a 48 percent decline in fatal injuries among the security forces. This shows that a new era of happiness and peace has begun in J&K.”
Substantiating his claims with statistics, the Home Minister said that there were 2,654 incidents of “organized stone pelting” in 2010, which were reduced to zero in 2023. Likewise, there were 132 incidents of “organized strikes” in 2010, while not a single such incident took place in 2023. He said that similarly in 2010, as many as 112 civilians died in stone pelting, but in 2023 not a single civilian lost his life in such an incident. He said that the number of civilians injured in stone pelting stood at 6,235 in 2010, “but no such incidents take place now and, therefore, no one is injured.”
He said that the Modi government is strictly cracking down on terror financing besides sealing and freezing assets of terrorists and has also declared several separatist and militant organizations in J&K as unlawful associations and banned them under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 in a crackdown on them.
Taking a dig at the opposition parties and their leadership, he said, “They were saying that abrogation of Article 370 won’t impact J&K affairs, but today everything has changed. Not only is there a lot of improvement in the law-and-order situation and a new era of peace and security began post-Article 370 abrogation, an investment of ₹ 297 crore came to J&K in 2019-20, which increased to ₹ 2,153 crore in 2022-23.” He added, “Apart from this, an investment of ₹ 6,000 crore is in the pipeline”.
He said that J&K’s GSDP was ₹ one lakh crore in 2014-15, which shot up more than two- times to ₹ 2,27,927 crore in 2022-23. “Earlier, there were 94 colleges in J&K, the number which has gone to 147 now. Earlier there were no IIM, IIT, or AIIMS here, today an IIM and IIT each and two AIIMS have been established. Similarly, there were four medical colleges, but now seven more have come up. There was not even a single nursing college in J&K, today there are 15 such colleges in the Union Territory. He said that likewise J&K had only 500 medical seats to fill up annually earlier, but the number has gone to 1, 300 whereas 300 more PG seats have been added to increase the number to 667 and that of the nursing seats is now 3,000.
Mr. Shah said that 173 projects have been completed in J&K under the Smart City Mission whereas homes have been allocated to 1,45,000 people “within a very short period from 2019 onwards” He said, “The work of providing tap water to the houses of 13 lakh people has been done and along with this, the entire health expenses of up to ₹ 5 lakh of 82 lakh people are being borne by the Government of India and the J&K administration. He added that earlier only 60 services were online in J&K, which has now increased to 1,102, due to which corruption has been curbed.
He alleged that the local political leaders had in their governments made J&K a hub of corruption. “Earlier jobs were given through parchi (intercession) instead of merit, but today there is no room for corruption, and you have achieved this milestone through your merit”, he told the beneficiaries.
