7 ways how Modi govt will bring development, jobs to J&K

New Delhi, Sep 5 (IANS) A day after IANS reported the Modi government's global plan to thwart any attempt to internationalize Kashmir after India abrogated Article 370, a far wider and more detailed picture on how it plans to soothe Kashmiri emotions back home and create thousands of jobs in the Valley has emerged.

As a starter, the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) will send a team to the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh to explore opportunities where it can invest human resource and money for their development. This is not the first ministry which has sent its delegation to the Valley. The Minority Welfare and Culture Ministries too sent their teams to the new UTs earlier. Culture Minister Prahlad Patel too was in Ladakh on Wednesday.

The other six ways the government is considering are:

• At least three to five Public Sector Units (PSU) have been identified to invest in the erstwhile state of J&K, government sources told IANS. While it is unclear which these PSUs are, but sources say after the investment, the jobs generated will go to the locals.

• Tax Holiday is another option through which the Modi government has planned to woo Kashmiris and Ladakhis. The government has decided to extend GST relaxation to new businesses that will open in the Valley, sources say.

• The paramilitary forces will also go on a massive recruitment drive in the Valley. The sources told IANS that two battalions of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Border Security Force (BSF) will be raised from among the local people.

• Recruitment will not only be limited to paramilitary agencies. The Indian Army has already begun recruitment in the Chenab Valley. The recruitment can go up to as much as 31,000 in the entire J&K, IANS has learnt.

• Apart from jobs and sops to business, the Union government wants to make everyday life of normal Kashmiris a bit easy as well, and has decided that power tariffs will be reduced across the two UTs which will help Kashmiris and Ladakhis to save more.

• With renewable energy a key objective of the Modi government, their Kashmir outreach cannot ignore it. The government will set up solar power plants at Leh at the newly-created Union Territory of Ladakh. The idea is to harness the ample availability of sunlight in the area, which is also optimum since it is above cloud formation level, and hence sunlight is freely available in Ladakh, at least in the summer.