Ministers to visit J&K as part of govt outreach plan
ART 370 REVOCATION Ministers will visit 59 places and meet a ‘broad section of society’ during the seven-day visit
SRINAGAR: Over five months after the nullification of Constitution’s Article 370, which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Piyush Goyal will be among 36 Union ministers, who will visit the region from January 18 to 24 to create awareness in the Union Territory about the developmental works carried out there, officials said citing the schedule of the visit given to the local administration.
The government has maintained that Article 370 was an impediment to the region’s development in the face of much criticism over the communication blackout and a lockdown that were imposed ahead of the nullification in August.
Most of the restrictions have since been eased but top political leaders, including three former chief ministers, detained in August continue to remain under detention.
The ministers will visit 59 places, including eight in the Kashmir Valley, and meet a “broad section of the society” including Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers, civil society members and government officials, an official said on condition of anonymity.
A Union home ministry official confirmed the week-long visit “by so many Central ministers”. The ministry is coordinating the visit, said the official on condition of anonymity.
Union minister of state for home G Kishan Reddy has written a letter to Jammu and Kashmir chief secretary BVR Subrahmanyam informing him about the visit.
In his letter, Reddy said Union home minister Amit Shah has “desired that all members of the Union Council of Ministers pay a visit to Jammu and Kashmir, with the objective of disseminating information about the importance of the Centre’s policies for the overall development of the Union Territory and its people along with the steps taken by the government, particularly in the past five months after the abrogation of Article 370 provisions, and bifurcation of the erstwhile state”.
According to the letter, Union minister of women and child development Smriti Irani will visit Katra and Panthal areas of Reasi district on January 19.
On the same day, her cabinet colleague, Piyush Goyal, will be in Srinagar.
Reddy will be in Ganderbal on January 22 and Manigam on January 23. Prasad will visit Sopore in Baramulla district on January 24. Union ministers Anurag Thakur, Giriraj Singh, Pralhad Joshi, Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ and Jitendra Singh are among the other ministers, who will visit different districts.
Jammu and Kashmir administration officials familiar with the details of the visit said that the ministers will attend officials functions to be held at various places across the state.
They will also be briefed about the status of various ongoing and planned developmental projects in the state, they added.
BJP’S Jammu and Kashmir spokesman, Altaf Thakur, said the ministers will hold a series of official meetings. “[They] will also meet BJP workers, who will brief them about developmental works in Kashmir.”