Title - PM to reach out to Valley with a clutch of development plans

Srinagar:
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be landing at his familiar destination of Kashmir tomorrow with a bagful of developmental plans that would give the Valley an unhindered access to the rest of the country round the year and also lighten the dark houses in this power starved state.Notwithstanding the attacks by militants on the Army and the paramilitary forces in Srinagar, inflicting few casualties on them, the Prime Minister would be connecting himself directly with the “aam adami” (common man) who is looking forward to development. The violence is the handiwork of those who want to derail the progress of Kashmir and show that the Valley is still conflict-ridden.The people have seen through this game and they are waiting for development, education, progress and prosperity and that is what the Prime Minister has recognised which explains his almost yearly travel to Jammu and Kashmir.Manmohan Singh who had set the developmental agenda rolling in November 2004 when he first visited Jammu and Kashmir as the Prime Minister by announcing Rs 24,000 crore under the Prime Minister Reconstruction Plan (PMRP), along the years has been gifting one development project after another.In 2008, he inaugurated the 450-MW Baglihar power project in Ramban in Jammu region, and flagged off a train in Kashmir’. Next year, he flagged off train on the Qazigund-Baramullah stretch in the Valley.

Now, he would be inaugurating the railway track passing through the south to the north of Pir Panjal, thus fulfilling a dream of the masses to travel to other parts of the world without any obstacles and fear of snow and avalanches during winters.

Tuesday would be read as a red letter day in the history of Jammu and Kashmir, when he would be flying to Kishtwar to lay foundation stone of the mega 850-MW power project. He is also expected to lay the foundation of two more power projects in Ladakh through remote, giving a full sense of participation to all the three regions of the state.

This land, and the people here love to hear the visiting dignitaries, even when they have an off day, courtesy a shutdown call given by separatists, through the TV channels and then they analyse their own answers to what has been said and what has been left unsaid.

For two years-2011 and 2012-Prime Minister did not visit the Valley, this year he is picking up the threads from where he had left in 2010. “The people here ate aware that he was enjoying the semblance of normalcy in the Valley, sitting in New Delhi, for him, the footfalls of the tourists meant more than anything else,” remarked Mohammad Shafi, a retired teacher.

Sounding realistic, Shafi asked, “What more can the Prime Minister do beyond laying the foundation of a mega hydro-electric project and flagging off a train from south to the north of Pir Panjal in Kashmir, into the Valley. “With his public meeting, along with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, in Kishtwar on Tuesday followed by interaction with the council of ministers on the same day, he would be able to throw some light that how the Centre wants to reach out to the people of Kashmir. Their words at Kishtwar, a bowl shaped town in the Himalayas in the erstwhile Doda district in Jammu region would give some inkling as to what the next line on Kashmir is-for them Kashmir means an entire unit of three regions of Jammu, Ladakh and Kashmir where only an all inclusive policy would work, and work for the unity and integrity of the state. That message, if past is any guide, would be repeated in the Valley.

Apart from meeting the delegations, he would be having one on one meeting with Chief Minister Omar Abdullah preceded by a presentation by the council of ministers in the presence top bureaucrats.