STATE TIMES NEWS
KATHUA: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) and MoS PMO, Dr Jitendra Singh has said that demonetisation will enrich rural economy of India and actually benefit those sections of society who were being held to ransom as a result of black money hoarding by a few.
Addressing a public meeting at Jakhbar near here on Sunday, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the opposition leaders, who are uncomfortable with this decision, are regularly putting out different arguments to challenge it and one of the arguments put across is, how will it help the large population of India living in rural and semi-rural areas or the large number of common citizens queuing up for exchange of currency notes. The answer to this, he said, is very simple and added, when a handful of people hoarding unaccounted money obtained through illegitimate means are made to surrender it to the banks, this will ultimately end up in reinforcing the country’s legitimate exchequer and increase the quantum of money in the banks.
As a result, he said, this would enable the State exchequer to carry forward the Modi Government’s pro-poor schemes in a more effective manner by providing higher financial resources, possible reduction in interest rates for loans to the poor, needy and youth entrepreneurs, and raising the overall capacity of fair economic transaction.
Describing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to change the legal order of Rs.500 and Rs. 1000 notes as a decision of the century, Singh said, the decision was not taken by any government for the past 70 years because they had their vested interests deeply entrenched in black money and corruption. Narendra Modi is the only Prime Minister, he said, who could have taken this decision because of his impeccable honesty, sincerity and courage of conviction, with no vested interest whatsoever or nothing to hide. The entire exercise is motivated keeping in mind the interest of the poorest of the poor and, therefore, ultimately those who had to undergo initial inconvenience during this transition would be the actual beneficiaries, he added.
Singh said, the demonetization drive has evidently proved that if the leadership of the country is honest and well meaning, the poorest of the poor living even in villages are ready to cope up with initial inconvenience in return for larger profits and gains for themselves and their next generation. Complimenting the people of Kathua for being always the torch-bearers of every new development activity in J&K in the last two years, Singh said, the work on Nagri to Palli Morh road will be expedited and the Border Road Organization (BRO) authorities have accordingly been instructed. Similarly, assuring the local population, he said, the Keediyan-Gandiyal bridge road to link Nagri-Palli road via old Samba-Kathua road is also being taken up by BRO, Ministry of Defence.
Singh said, in the last two years, Kathua is perhaps the only district in J&K which has been granted both a Medical College as well as an Engineering College, in addition to an AIIMS which is to come up immediately across the outer limit of the district. With a bio tech park coming up in the vicinity and a “Seed Production” unit also in the offing, Kathua is all set to emerge as a model district of the State of Jammu & Kashmir, he said. However, it is now up to us to decide as to how best to make use of the enormous priority and benevolence being offered by the Modi Government, so that it does not get withered away due to internal contradictions or conflicts, he added.
Earlier, senior BJP leader from the area, Janak Bharti welcomed Jitendra and felicitated him for a series of development initiatives introduced by him in the Kathua District. He said, it was after a long span of time that there was an MP who was working tirelessly and constantly with entire focus on the development of the constituency.
Prem Nath Dogra, District President BJP, senior BJP leaders including Rashpal Verma, Raghunandan Bablu, Gopal Mahajan, Dr Narinder Singh and district Party office bearers were also present on the occasion.
‘Demeaning sacrifice of armed forces a cardinal sin’
“Any direct or indirect comment or statement that demeans the sacrifice of our soldiers or insults their services is a sin, a cardinal sin which cannot be repented,” Dr Jitendra Singh said, reacting to Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad’s remarks drawing a comparison between the Uri terror attack casualties and the deaths after demonetisation.
Singh, who was in Kathua, said it was because of these brave soldiers that the people in the country were in a position to begin their day as per their wishes. On the increase in the incidents of ceasefire violations from the Pakistani side in which several people have lost their lives, Dr Singh said it was for the first time in past several years that Pakistan was getting a befitting reply. “People living in border areas agree that the retaliatory action which is happening this time has never been seen before and that is why the morale of the people is high,” Dr Jitendra Singh said. He said the morale of the army and paramilitary forces was high which has boosted the morale of the entire country.
