‘There are MPs here, a panchayati system… Yes, Assembly polls not conducted… No one should doubt these won’t be held’: J&K L-G Manoj Sinha

See, the numbers tell their story on various parameters, whether it is law and order or recruitment or other numbers. What I will say is that, is it not true that street violence has come down in the last four years? Is it not true that shutdowns called by terrorist organisations or our neighbouring country are no longer effective?… Is it not true that school, colleges and trade are open around the year? There was a time when people would aim to reach home before sunset, and now people are out till late night in Srinagar city.

These are big indicators and I consider this a big change. We can talk about numbers, but this is not a small thing in the context of this place. The biggest thing is that a common Kashmiri is not bound by anyone’s diktat.

Look at it from another angle… Schools and universities would lose out due to bandhs, trade would suffer. Who was losing out the most in all this? The common people, the poor people. If there are over 1.8 crore tourists here, employment opportunities have increased.

Any project or work that would begin and should have been completed in one or two years, would take five years, and there was no accountability for the same. The common person was in the most difficult position and now they have been rid of this.

But the people see a political vacuum. The government always talks about the panchayati raj institutions, but on the ground the feeling is they have not been able to fill this vacuum. Is the administration cognizant of this?

There are MPs here, there is a functional, three-tier panchayati raj system. Despite starting late, I can tell you that funds, functions and functionaries have been utilised here better than in any other state in the country. Now district capex (capital expenditure) plans are being prepared through discussions with these elected representatives. Those projects that are needed on the ground are being carried out.

Your question is about the Assembly elections… those have not been conducted, yes. Under the State Reorganisation Act of 2019, the Home Minister has said in Parliament that the way forward is delimitation, then Assembly elections and then statehood at an appropriate time.

Delimitation was important because Ladakh was carved out (of J&K). Seven Assembly seats increased here and their boundaries had to be decided. That is done. Now the question is why not (elections) after that? The voter list is from 2015, elections in 2023 cannot take place on the basis of that list. (But) Voter list revision is also completed. The Election Commission of India will now decide on the elections and whenever it decides, the J&K administration will be ready for the same.

No one should have any doubt about this. People who have attended Parliament and understand Constitutional principles, they should know the importance of an assurance made on the floor of Parliament. Sowing undue doubt in every aspect is not proper.

We will also try to ensure that panchayat and urban local body elections take place at their designated time.

There is a lot of talk about development in the administration’s messaging. On what metrics of development do you think J&K is doing well?

Infrastructure, as well as the social sector. In infrastructure, highway and tunnel projects worth Rs 1.50 lakh crore are on. In terms of rural roads under the PMGSY, we are No. 3 in the country. We are laying 20 km of road every day.

In the power sector, our capacity in transmission and distribution has increased manifold. We were generating 3450 MW. Five new projects are under construction… Our power generation capacity will go up by approximately 3200 MW.

What about the debts J&K is burdened with in the power sector?

It is true that our power corporation is running in losses. We are also incurring losses because some areas do not have meters. We have been providing electricity by taking loans from the Government of India. Metering is on and we are aiming that our losses come down. There is a Power Ministry scheme called the RDSS (Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme). We are part of it and have received some funds. We will continue to work so as to make corporations viable.

Look at health… I will not go into the numbers. J&K is better than the national average on every parameter. With Covid management, we did well. There are seven new medical colleges, two AIIMS and two cancer institutes in various stages of development, among other initiatives.

Agriculture is a sector where we are paying special attention. We are spending Rs 513 crore there, other than the budget.

The government has published a lot of investment proposals for industries in Kashmir. How much work is actually taking place on the ground?

Before the new industrial scheme of 2021, investment of approximately Rs 13,000 crore had taken place in J&K. If you see the new scheme, it has very good incentives. We received proposals worth more than Rs 80,000 crore. I will tell you very responsibly that, on the ground, works worth Rs 27,000 crore are ongoing. Some are in production now, some will take a few months and some another year. The challenge is that there was difficulty finding land here. Now we have largely addressed that, in both Jammu and Kashmir. Local people can also invest in this, there is no difficulty.

We are also focused on exporting our handicrafts. GI tagging for several products is taking place. We have fruit production of 19 lakh metric tonnes. There is immense scope in developing cold storage and cold chains because there is fruit production here around the year. Everything will increase after we implement the holistic agriculture development plan.