Union minister Jitendra Singh on Tuesday said while the Congress governments in the past exploited the Gujjars in Jammu and Kashmir for vote bank politics, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave the community political reservation to contest the election.

The delimitation commission recently reserved nine seats for the Scheduled Tribes community in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly.

Addressing an election rally in the remote region of Kishtwar district, he said from a neglected remote area, it has emerged as north India’s power hub and has undergone amazing transformation in the last 10 years which is to be seen to be believed.

He said Kishtwar is all set to emerge North India’s major “power hub” generating around 6,000 MW of electricity. Seven major hydropower projects have come up in the region in a short span of 9 to 10 years ever since Modi took over as Prime Minister.

Elaborating on this, he pointed out that the largest capacity project is Pakal Dul with a capacity of 1,000 MW. Its estimated cost, as of now, is Rs.8,112.12 crore and expected timeline of competition is 2025.

Another major project is Kiru Hydroelectric project with a capacity of 624 MW. The estimated cost of the project is Rs. 4,285.59 crore and the timeline in this case is also 2025, he said.

The Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions further said at the same time, 850 MW Ratle project has been revived as a joint venture between the Centre and J&K.

He said these projects shall not only augment the power supply position thereby making up for the shortage of power supply in the UT of J&K, but the huge investment being made for construction of these projects is also a boost for direct as well as indirect opportunities for the local people.

He said for several years, people here had been agitating and demanding a degree college for Paddar, but Congress and National Conference governments deliberately ignored this demand. It was only after Modi came to power in 2014 that a degree college was sanctioned for the area under centre’s scheme RUSA (Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan).

Before 2014, road travel to Kishtwar was cumbersome and on the slightest landside, the Doda-Kishtwar road got blocked. But today, the road travel time from Jammu to Kishtwar has reduced from over 7 hours to less than 5 hours.

Similarly, he said, Kishtwar has come up on the aviation map of India and has been sanctioned an airport under the Centre’s UDAAN scheme.
Several highways, bridges and mobile connectivity have also come up in the remote areas of the district.