8.8.20

Kashmir: 2,300 pending projects worth ₹6,000cr cleared

In the year following neutering of Article 370 in Jammu & Kashmir, 2,273 infrastructure projects worth Rs.5,979 crore, which had been pending for the past 5-10 years, were sanctioned and 506 completed even as J&K Chief Secretary B V R Subrahmanyam describes the efforts to bring good governance and development to the erstwhile state as “work in progress”.

Some of the works done so far include strengthening of the panchayat structure, completion of Phase 1 of Jhelum flood mitigation project, creation of 10,000 jobs and opening up 50 new degree colleges.

Describing the erstwhile state of J&K as “broken” and with no “system” due to years of mis-governance and corruption and “unbelievable levels of fraud” committed by past regimes led by a handful of powerful families and institutions controlled by them, Subrahmanyam, a Chhattisgarh-cadre IAS officer, said he was sent to J&K by the Prime Minister with a clear direction to “clean up the state, reform it and hand over to the people of J&K their ‘amaanat’ (valued possession)”.

Projects pending for over four decades like the Shahpur-Kandi project were started, J&K Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation was created last year to complete projects languishing for 5-10 years, panchayat elections were held successfully and the intricacies of transition J&K Constitution to Constitution of India, state to Union territory followed through.

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