A few days back, the Indian government took a group of foreign envoys on a visit to Jammu and Kashmir for a first evaluation of the situation in the region
New Delhi: After the abrogation of provisions of Article 370 on 5 August 2019, for the first time, a group of ministers are all set to visit Jammu and Kashmir to speak to the people about the development initiatives that the Central government plans to undertake in the newly bifurcated union territories. The visit would take place between January 18 and January 24.
While National Security Advisor Ajit Doval has paid many visits to Jammu and Kashmir, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home minister Amit Shah have spoken about the merits of the move in various public events following the abrogation of Article 370, the visit of the group of ministers is the Central government’s first move to directly reach out to the Union Territory’s people.
Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and railway minister Piyush Goyal are part of the group undertaking the visit, their schedule is yet to be finalized.
Around 36 MPs including Ravi Shankar Prasad, Piyush Goyal, Smriti Irani, Ramesh Pokhriyal, Jitendra Singh, Kiren Rijiju, Hardeep Singh Puri, Anurag Thakur and Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti will be travelling to Srinagar, Jammu and other regions in the valley.
“These ministers will share development initiatives taken by the government and reach out to the people of Jammu and Kashmir and inform them about the projects and other initiatives which will be rolled out in the region,” said a senior central government official, seeking anonymity.
The ministers’ visit comes five months after a complete shutdown was imposed in the valley on 5 August. While both Narendra Modi and Amit Shah have repeated that the move was aimed at re-integrating Kashmir with the rest of country in order to push in greater development in the valley, a communication and transport blockade in the region had thrown life out of gear.
A few days back, the Indian government took a group of foreign envoys on a visit to Jammu and Kashmir for a first evaluation of the situation in the region.
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