J&K: Centre's Public outreach Programme kicks off

The nine-week long Public Outreach Programme II on Jammu and Kashmir will commence on Friday. Some 70 Union ministers are expected to visit Jammu and Kashmir and interact with the people and administration and representatives of Panchayat Raj and District Development Councils (DDC)in the Union Territory.

The Programme was to take place in July but was delayed due to the monsoon session in the Parliament Independence Day celebrations.

The ministers will prepare a report for the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) for action.

Earlier, 36 Union ministers had visited J&K as part of the Centre’s outreach programme in January last year. 

The visit of the union ministers has been coordinated by the minister of state in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) Dr Jitendra Singh, a resident of Jammu. A group of eight ministers including senior cabinet ministers will visit the UT every week to take stock of the situation and interact with the administration and elected representatives of the people.

The ministers will visit and interact with the officials under their jurisdiction in the Centre. 

For example, the ministers for agriculture visit agriculture sites, areas and rural development. Likewise, the ministers dealing with urban development will visit rural and urban and semi-urban areas. 

According to sources, the ministers will try to cover most of the tehsils and interact with the people directly.  

The extensive outreach by the Centre is aimed at identifying areas where the government in J&K and the Centre needs to act for the benefit of the people.

Areas, where the J&K government will need to step in, will be dealt with by the UT government while the rest will be tackled by the Centre. 

In the last few days, 13 Parliamentary Standing Committees (PSCs) comprising around 300 Members of Parliament (MPs) have visited J&K and Ladakh. More PSCs are on the way to the two Union Territories. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla was also on a week-long tour of Ladakh and Kashmir which ended on September 2.