Earlier governments deliberately neglected remote areas of Jammu region: Dr Jitendra

STATE TIMES NEWS

BANI: Union Minister, Dr Jitendra Singh said here on Saturday that the earlier governments had deliberately neglected remote areas of the Jammu region because of vote bank considerations.
He said, the elected representatives of these parties never wanted education or awareness to reach the people in remote areas so that, election after election, the people’s ignorance could be exploited to secure their vote.
Addressing a public meeting in this remote hilly area under snowfall conditions, Dr Jitendra said, Prime Minister Narendra Modi changed this self-centred culture to reach out to those who were needy, regardless of whichever party they had voted for.
He said, some day, analysts will seek an answer as to why all the development that happened in remote Machhedi and Bani area in the last 10 years, could not happen in the earlier six decades.
On the occasion, he announced Rs 20 lakh for Machhedi out of which Rs 10 lakh had already been allocated for a Community Hall.
When Modi took over as Prime Minister in 2014, the entire country was reeling under the shadow of pessimism and the common citizen had lost all hope.
Today, even people living in remote areas like here feel confident that their elected representatives sincerely care for them and are constantly working hard to get new projects for them, said Dr Jitendra. This change has been possible because we have the Modi government at the Centre, he added. Referring to the massive developments seen in the far flung hilly regions like Machhedi and Bani, Dr Jitendra said, Modi had promised that he would raise the neglected and peripheral regions of the country to the same equal level as the more developed regions and he has succeeded in doing so.
He said, Bani which was one of the most inaccessible regions in the Jammu division, had in the last 10 years received a network of roads through Central funds and new Highways are under construction.
Accusing the earlier governments of deliberately neglecting the far flung hilly regions, Dr Jitendra said, perhaps the motive was that the people living in these remote areas should remain perpetually deprived of the opportunities unfolding in the rest of the world so that their ignorance could be exploited to extract their votes, election after election.
“Modi Government also provided level playing field to the aspirations of youth from even the remotest area in Jammu and Kashmir”, said Dr. Singh.
According to Dr.Jitendra Singh Chhatargala Tunnel will provide all-weather road connectivity from Lakhanpur through Bani to Bhadarwah which will lead to ease of travel, generate, employment opportunities and harness tourist potential of the region.
Maximum allocation under PMGSY in done in Udhampur-Kathua-Doda to improve road connectivity to villages said Dr. Singh.
“Bani region has location as scenic as Kashmir valley, my aim is to bring in on tourist map of India by increasing road connectivity of the region”, the Minister said.