RailEnquiry

Wants Centre to help state shed industrial backwardness
-Jammu: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today said clubbing the state with the category of hilly and geographically difficult states for extending Central financial support and industrial package fell short of justice to the people of this part of the country.The Chief Minister said Jammu and Kashmir was in itself a category as it had borne the brunt of militancy and experienced a saga of miseries and loss of precious human lives.Omar said in order to help the state overcome industrial backwardness and economic shortcoming, the Centre should announce a rail coach factory, as it had done in Punjab.He also emphasised the need for transfer of Salal, Dulhasti and Uri hydropower projects to the state while stressing on granting support to the state.He said when the country was reaping the benefits of liberalisation of the industrial policy, Jammu and Kashmir was fighting militancy. “The justice demands that we should be compensated, that too, substantially for this reason,” he said.“The waging of militancy was against the entire nation and Jammu and Kashmir was a theatre for enemies to operationalise their designs. We have sacrificed our life and property, thousands of women were widowed and children orphaned. We have undergone tremendous dip in economy. The progress of the state remained standstill, thousands of youth were rendered jobless and trade and industries received a serious jolt,” he said, adding that Jammu and Kashmir was injured to protect the country.

He said the truth needed to be borne in mind while extending support to Jammu and Kashmir.

He strongly advocated for the recognition of the status and Central support for the development and growth of the state.

“Do not take us at par with other states. We have been on the forefront to safeguard the country. We have sacrificed for the nation. Do not place us in the category of hilly states when the question of extending help to Jammu and Kashmir arises,” Omar said.

Addressing a seminar on ‘Building Capacities for Sustainable Growth’ in Jammu and Kashmir organised by ASSOCHAM, India, the Chief Minister said the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise sector had been the engine of growth in any economy and contributed a lion’s share in investment, employment, production and productivity.