Rakshanda Bhat
Srinagar 29 July (KNB): Taking the Jammu Kashmir state to path of progress the Jammu and Kashmir’s Governor, Satya Pal Malik’s administration has inaugurated major 16 projects from the past 11 months, including 10 major projects launched by the Prime Minister. The governor has focused on tourism as an essential part of the overall growth including employment policy and has been commissioned to unhitch the enormous potential of the sector.
He addressed the difficulties posed to this sector by the cynical view of the situation in the valley through a campaign. Not to forget the reality that resorts like Pahalgam and Gulmarg (hill resorts in the valley) have been recording almost 100 percent occupancy. A constant effort has been made by the state tourism department to pull pilgrims and tourists to the state.
In the Ladakh region, the Centre has supported the proposal of the state to open up more tourist and trekking routes. An additional investment of Rs 2,000 crore has been invested for the spread of new tourism infrastructure plans in the state under PMDP. The project aims to increase the tourist flow to the state.
Back in September 2018, Pal discussed the inaccessibility to means of entertainment and decided to build two international stadia for cricket and football and informed the media that some work has already been done. In December, when the panchayat polls took place, the state saw an average voter turnout of 74% over nine phases.
Earlier, Malik launched an authoritative portal for the management and monitoring of the open-ended infrastructure projects in the state. The State Infrastructure Monitoring System (SIMS) will give a single platform for all the state departments to upload the information of their respective languishing projects.
Similarly Malik launched ‘Government to Citizen’ online services of seven departments on the State Services Delivery Gateway. The newly launched services would benefit over seven lakh beneficiaries every year. In the same month, he also initiated the process of issuance of No Objection Certificate for employment through an online system in which the first online NOC.
He also urged the J&K Resident Commission Office to make every effort to protect and preserve the properties of the State. He travelled to Ajmer he inaugurated J&K Bank’s Business Unit as well.
In the month of April the inaugural function of Palanquin (PALKI) Project at Sri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine was done by Pal. He also kicked off the NIELIT facilitation Centre at Educational and Cultural Centre of Ramakrishna Mission Jammu.
Important to mention here, the plan of expanding the Kargil airport was approved by a month ago which will include a full-fledged facility for commercial flight operations by the end of this year.
On the other hand, the state-organized a week-long ‘Back to the Village’ program from June 20 to 27 which was termed a successful program and all the villagers welcomed this step with open arms.
Taking the development in the field of education, governor have doubled the number of colleges in the state from 98 to 200, an expansion which will have a long term impact. Also added over 240 high and higher secondary schools. Similarly, the number of medical seats in the state has gone up from 500 to over 1000 in one year, probably a first for any state. (KNB)