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| Govt. committed to undo economic disparity: Azad | | Says neglected areas in special focus of dev strategy | | Early Times Reporter
Gurez | June 25
Day after visiting Tangdhar, a remote border town in North Kashmir, Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, today arrived in this geographically disadvantageous township of the newly created Bandipora district to interact with people on development needs and problems confronting them.
The mood of the people was upbeat by the Chief Minister's visit that served as reassurance for them that the government was committed to their development. Azad addressed three public meetings at Kanzalwan, Dawar and Telel, among the most backward pockets of the State that remain cut off from rest of the world for six months a year during winter.
As the Chief Minister arrived here, men, women and children lined up the road to greet him and accord warm reception.
The Chief Minister said that his government was committed to undo the centuries old economic disparity between areas and remove the injustice in matters of development. He talked in detail about the initiatives taken by his government especially in critical sectors like health, education, roads, power and drinking water. He said the resources and facilities were distributed equally among different areas of the State while far-flung and geographically disadvantageous areas like Gurez were in special focus as these had remained neglected for long in matters of development. He said for the first time in the history of Jammu & Kashmir the benefits of the development initiatives were not restricted to cities and main towns but extended to block, tehsil and village level throughout the State.
Azad said launching of development projects, providing basic amenities and improving the existing facilities were the priority with his government. He said he had been spending much time in visiting such areas throughout the State to have a feel of the people's problems and devise means to address these. He said he personally monitors progress of development projects and seeks periodic reports from the concerned officers. The improved work culture, he said, had helped in projects being completed within time, thus making much needed facilities available to people without long wait. Major projects that earlier took decades to complete were now through in a year or two, he added.
The Chief Minister said with the liberal central assistance the State government was working on ambitious schemes aimed at connecting each village with road and providing power and drinking water facilities to them within coming four years. He said this was a gigantic task and would be accomplished as planned. He said the development profile of Jammu & Kashmir had drastically changed for the better during the past few years and was poised for further improvement. He said in the health sector, state-of-the-art hospitals with 200 bed strength were under construction at all district headquarters. Some of these had already been inaugurated. Similarly, he said well equipped modern hospitals were being built at sub-district, block and tehsil levels while the primary health centres and health centres were modernized at village level. Likewise, he said, the reach of education both at primary and higher level had been extended as never before since he assumed the responsibilities of the government about three years back. He said thousands of schools had been opened and upgraded while 40 new degree colleges were set up in just four years. This, he said, was an unimaginable achievement given the fact that during the preceding 56 years only 35 colleges had been opened in the State. He said university education also had been expanded with 9 new university campuses coming up across the State. This had brought the higher education within the affordable reach of students of far-off and backward areas, he said.
Referring to Gurez, the Chief Minister said that the area had vast tourism potential which needs to be explored. He said the Kishenganga hydel power project would launch economic revolution in the area, besides addressing unemployment problem. |
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