As the central government starts a mega outreach programme in Jammu and Kashmir, five months after the abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of the erstwhile state, Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Saturday said this is the first time in history that a whole Cabinet is meeting common people so as to listen to their grievances on ground, receiving their feedback for an assured timely solution.
Jammu and Kashmir's transformation will be exemplary in the coming days, the minister, who is an MP from Udhampur in Jammu, said.
Singh said that the Central Government schemes should reach its actual beneficiaries who have been deprived of it in the past.
He was addressing corporators, sarpanchs and panchs at Convention Centre Jammu in presence of local MPs Shamsher Singh Manhas and Jugal Kishore Sharma.
Thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Union Minister of State for PMO said the government wants grass-root level participation to become an integral part of democracy which can then empower people socially, economically and politically.
He also announced to establish three media centres at Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh for the benefit of the media persons where all facilities will be provided to them on the lines of National Media Center.
As a part of the Centre's outreach programme, 38 Union Ministers will undertake an extensive tour of different districts across 60 different locations in both the divisions of Jammu and Kashmir.
"The objective of the visit is to disseminate the information about the importance of the government policies with regard to the overall development of J&K and its people along with steps taken in this direction in the last five months," the government has said.
Railways Minister Piyush Goyal, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi are some of the top ministers who are scheduled to visit the newly-carved Union Territory.
Former Army chief and MoS for Road Transport & Highways VK Singh and MoS Home G Kishan Reddy are also on the list of ministers who will take the trip.
The ministers will inform the people about the steps taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government at the Centre for the region after the abrogation of Article 370.
This is the first visit of these many Union ministers to the region after the August 5 decision.
Anurag Thakur, Giriraj Singh, Prahlad Joshi, Renuka Singh, and Kiren Rijiju are also among the ministers who will visit Jammu and Kashmir.
A total of 59, 51 trips are planned for Jammu while other eight are in Srinagar.
