There has been substantial progress in J-K, significant decline in terrorist incidents: Govt to LS

New Delhi [India], March 22 (ANI): The Central government on Tuesday informed the Lok Sabha that Jammu and Kashmir has improved substantially and there has been a significant decline in terrorist incidents in the region.
Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai announced through a written reply that 25 out of 53 projects under Prime Minister's Development package 2015 pertaining to 15 different ministries have been completed or substantially completed.
Replying to a question asked by Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Kunwar Danish Ali "Is the situation in J-K still not normal?", the Minister said, "the government has instituted a robust security and intelligence grid along with proactive operations against terrorists in J-K".
"Therefore, the security situation in J-K has improved substantially and there has been a significant decline in terrorist incidents and infiltration of terrorists from across the border," Rai said.
Giving data, the Minister informed the Lower House, "The net infiltration has decreased from 143 in the year 2014 to only 31 in 2021 and the terrorist incidents also declined from 417 in the year 2018 to 229 in 2021."
The data also mentions that 138 infiltrations were noted in 2019 followed by 51 in 2020, and 255 terrorist incidents occurred in 2019 followed by 244 in 2020.
Meanwhile, the Minister said, "257 terrorists were killed in the year 2018 followed by 157 in 2019, 221 in 2020 and 180 in the year 2021." Rai further said that the government has taken several steps to boost the development of J-K.
"The progress of projects being implemented in the Union Territory (UT) of J-K under the Prime Minister's Development Package-2015 has been accelerated. 53 different projects pertaining to 15 ministries are being implemented at a cost of Rs 58,477 crores, in various sectors such as Roads, Power, Health, Education, Tourism, Agriculture, Skill Development etc., out of which 25 projects have been completed or substantially completed," said the Minister.
Rai said a new Central Sector Scheme has been notified on February 19, 2021, for the Industrial Development of UT of J-K, with an outlay of Rs 28,400 crores which is likely to provide employment to over 4.5 lakh people while boosting the industrial development of J-K.
He also said the government of J-K has approved a business revival package of Rs 1,352.99 crores on September 25, 2020.
Under languishing projects programme, Rai later said 1,193 projects worth Rs 1,984 crores were completed, including 5 projects which were incomplete for more than 20 years (15 projects for more than 15 years and 165 projects for more than 10 years.)
J-K has been declared Open Defecation Free (ODF) under Swachh Bharat Mission; and 100 per cent saturation has been achieved in 17 individual beneficiary centric schemes, including Saubhagya, Ujala, Ujjwala and Indradhanush schemes, said the Minister.
During the year 2020 to 2021, the MoS said, 1,289 road construction works were completed at a cost of Rs 1,638 crore.
"The construction work of 14,500 km of road has been completed so far under 'Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, which has connected about 2,000 places."
Work has been taken up for setting up of one All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) each in J-K Divisions at a cost of Rs 2,000 crores each, besides seven other medical colleges in the UT of J-K, he said, adding "Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Jammu and Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Jammu have been made functional".
"21 hydropower projects with an aggregate capacity of 5,186 Mega Watt have been taken up for development in next five years, and international flight from Srinagar to Sharjah has been started on October 23, 2021," added the Minister.
In addition, Rai said, night flights from Jammu and Srinagar have also been started.
The scope of the High-Density Plantation Scheme for Apple has been expanded to include Mango, Litchi, Cherry, Walnut, and Kashmiri Saffron has been given the Geographical Indication (GI) tag, said Rai.
Under fast-track recruitment, 26,330 posts have been identified in various departments in the UT of J-K and taken up for recruitment, said the MoS, adding "presently selection process has been completed with respect to 11,324 posts". (ANI)