37 Central Ministers to submit feedback to PMO on J&K dev initiatives

NEW DELHI: All 37 central ministers who visited Jammu and Kashmir recently will submit feedback to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on the implementation of various development schemes there, officials said on Friday.

So far, 14 ministers have submitted their assessment on the implementation of the welfare schemes in a proforma so that action can be taken on the basis of the feedback. All 37 union ministers will submit their feedback on their visits to Jammu and Kashmir soon, a home ministry official said.

The central ministers visited Jammu and Kashmir following a directive of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who wanted an honest assessment of various welfare schemes being carried out in the newly created Union Territory.

Among those who had visited Jammu and Kashmir include Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju, ministers of state for home G Kishan Reddy and

Nityanand Rai among others.

The ministers only spoke about the development initiatives and there was no reference to political issues, the official said. While interacting with

local people, the ministers got first hand information about the

local roads, healthcare facilities, power situation, functioning of academic institutions besides others.

There will be two sets of feedback — one on the initiatives taken by the UT administration and on the other about the central government initiatives, the official said.

Most of the central ministers stayed overnight at their respective place of visits like Baramulla, Ganderbal, Doda besides others.

In August last year, the central government had abrogated Article 370 which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated it into Union Territories.

Since then, the central government has been closely monitoring the implementation of various development programmes on the ground there.