The first group of the 36 Union ministers reached Jammu on Saturday as part of the Centre’s public outreach programme on Jammu and Kashmir after the revocation of Article 370.
The flight carrying the three ministers—Jitendra Singh Rana, Arjuna Meghwal and Ashwini Choubey—was diverted to Srinagar from Jammu due to bad weather. They later flew to Jammu after having lunch in Srinagar.
Singh chaired a meeting in Jammu, while Meghwal travelled to Parmandal and Chaubey to Chajjwal in Samba district.
“As part of a special public outreach programme, 36 Union ministers are visiting Jammu and Kashmir this week,’’ said Principal Secretary Rohit Kansal in Jammu. “ The ministers will visit 60 different locations in Jammu and Kashmir as part of the public outreach programme and speak with people about the overarching theme of development,” he said.
The Union ministers will travel to Jammu and Kashmir in batches and meet government officials, BJP workers and common public.
They will be apprised of different schemes that have been implemented in Jammu and Kashmir after the BJP’s Article 370 move and bifurcation of the state into two Union Territories (Uts).
Another group of 10 ministers will be arriving in Jammu on Sunday. Among them, Smriti Irani will visit Katra, while Dr Mahendra Nath Pandey will visit Jhajjar Kotli in Jammu.
Arjun Ram Meghwal will visit Basholi, V. Muralidharan Bilawar, Anurag Thakur Nagrota, Singh Udhampur, Piyush Goyal Akhnoor and Ashwani Chaubey will visit Samba Gaghwal.
On January 21, Union minister for minority affairs Mukhtar Abass Naqvi will lead another group of ministers to Kashmir. Naqvi will travel for a meeting at Fakir Gujri in Srinagar.
On January 22 ,Union minister of state for home G. Kishen Reddy will attend a function in Townhall in Ganderbal and Sher-i-Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC) Srinagar while Union minister of state for Yoga and Ayurveda Sripad Naik will attend a function at SKICC in Srinagar.
On January 24, Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhral Nishank will be travelling to Harwan in Srinagar while Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad will attend a function at Sopore in Baramulla and also chair a meeting of officials.
