Up until August 5, 2019, most of the news that came out of the then state of Jammu and Kashmir was always about rioting, Jihadi terrorism and separatist narratives. However, all that changed when on August 5, 2019, the BJP government removed Articles 370 and 35A and made way for the Indian constitution to be extended to the new Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
Today, rioting is a thing of the past, Jihadi terrorism has been effectively crushed and separatist narratives have been replaced by the Indian tricolour. These days Kashmiri Muslims are celebrating a new type of freedom. It is the freedom to keep their businesses open, to enjoy a fearless stroll in the beautiful Gul-e-Lala tulip gardens and a family picnic in a Shikara houseboat at Dal Lake.
One wonders how could Jammu Kashmir witness such a turnaround. The man responsible for bringing peace and swift development in the valley is no other than Jammu and Kashmir’s lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha.
No sooner was Sinha appointed as the Lt. Governor than he began a fact-finding tour of the whole of the state. During his early weeks and months in power, Sinha was seen visiting village after village and town after town investigating the political, social and economic situation on the ground.
He would sit on the ground with common villagers and patiently listen to them. People made complaints about local administration and state leaders, grievances about the central government and what they expected from the newly appointed Lt. Governor.
Once Sinha returned to his office he was well equipped with firsthand information and experience of the suffering of our people. Sinha now had a mission. The mission was and remains to this day to transform Jammu and Kashmir into one of the most developed and digitised regions in India.
Sinha has successfully managed to secure a Rupees 1.4 lakh crore budget for the fiscal year 2022-2023. On March 30 while addressing 20,000 members of Panchayati Raj Institutions, Sinha laid down the blueprint of how this budget is going to be utilised. He said that the effort of the union territory’s government was to remove the gap between rural and urban society.
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Reducing the social, economic and political gap between the rural and urban societies is the key to transforming India into a world economic powerhouse. Sinha acknowledged the importance of the rural economy in his tweet (March 29) which reads that a vibrant and productive agrarian economy is the foundation of high and sustained economic growth.
300 sports infrastructure projects are to be completed across 20 districts. For the first time, a sports policy has been adopted under the slogan of ‘Har Din Khel’ which will benefit around two million youth.
The Lt. Governor also inaugurated 20 Power distribution projects at the cost of Rs. 41 crore which would hugely increase the cold storage facilities in the valley.
It is hard to make people in PoJK believe that the world’s tallest rail bridge is being built in Chenab valley in J&K and will be completed by September. 200 new fully electric buses are being brought into Jammu and Kashmir. And within the next four years, Jammu Kashmir will be producing surplus electricity.
Sitting on the other side of the fence called the Line of Control (LoC) we look at the achievements that J&K has accomplished with pleasant envy.
PoJK suffers from 12 to 18 hours a day of load shedding. All the electricity that is produced at Mangla Dam is distributed to Pakistan. In PoJK we do not have proper roads let alone public transport. There are no playing grounds. No kindergartens of substantial standard.
The lack of health facilities in PoJK is one of the major causes of death since the sick cannot receive adequate medical attention in time.
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Witnessing the electrifying speed with which the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir is taking huge strides in economic development and progress, the enslaved people of PoJK can only hope that one day Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha would be able to extend his government’s development projects to the illegally occupied territory of Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. However, for that to happen the subjugated people of Pakistan have to take initiative and re-join Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
Dr Amjad Ayub Mirza is an author and a human rights activist from Mirpur in PoJK. He currently lives in exile in the UK. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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