As Jammu and Kashmir celebrates three years of revocation of temporary special status granted under Article 370 of the Constitution, not only seeds of development have started to sprout, but stone-pelting, terrorism, and corruption have been almost eradicated by the tireless efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Centre and lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha at the helm of affairs in J&K.
It wasn’t surprising that on August 5, 2019, when Parliament took a bold decision to repeal Article 370 sections, the detractors of the decision raised a hullabaloo and threatened that it would lead to bloodshed in Kashmir. However, three years down the line, those politicians and armchair experts, who had predicted doom, have nothing to say as the union territory is fast emerging as a hub of outside investment and development.
The silent majority in Jammu and Kashmir was in favour of revocation of Article 370 as it had only given them corrupt and dynastic politicians, but this Article giving special status turned out to be the creator of terrorism and separatism. Though terrorists at the behest of Pakistan are still targeting innocent civilians, the relentless operations against the terror ecosystem by the police and security forces in the last three years have ensured it will end sooner rather than later.Overall statistics show that there has been a decline in incidents of infiltration and terrorist attacks on civilians and the Army in Jammu and Kashmir since 2019.The dynastic politics in Jammu and Kashmir has taken a back seat and politics of development is at the centre stage, much to the delight of the common man. The so-called special status of the erstwhile state had been used by dynastic political families and their cheerleaders as a tool for looting the exchequer, and it also was an impediment to implementing laws and development projects as professionals and industrialists could not come here.
What was denied to the people of Jammu and Kashmir for over 70 years is now being given to them. All flagship schemes of the central government, including individual beneficiary-centric schemes, are being proactively implemented in the union territory. The Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) SEHAT scheme, which provides health insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh per family per year to all the residents of J&K at empanelled hospitals, has brought relief to lakhs of poor patients here.The revocation of Article 370 sections opened the gates of development in J&K. 1,200 start-ups have been registered, of which more than 200 have been funded till now. In adherence with PM Modi’s infrastructure development vision, several new projects worth Rs 1 lakh crore were approved and bottlenecks that marred the completion of existing projects were removed. Earlier 8,000-9,000 projects were completed in a year, and now more than 51,000 projects are being completed with speed and transparency. Earlier, 6 kilometres of roads would be built, and now it has increased to 20 kilometres per day. At least on 12 health parameters, J&K is above the national average. To bring about ease of doing business, more than 200 administrative reforms have been undertaken by the central government.
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