JAMMU: Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Monday said that Jammu and Kashmir and the unexplored north-eastern region have huge amount of natural resources capable of driving India’s growth story in the ‘Amrit Kaal’.
Addressing the inaugural session of seventh batch of the capacity building programme for senior officers of the Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service (JKAS) via video conferencing, Singh asked them to be catalysts of Modi’s governance reforms and help in their effective implementation in the union territory. The training event is being hosted at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie from Novemebr 27 to December 8
“The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the unexplored north-eastern region (NER) have huge natural resources that would drive India’s future growth story during the Amrit Kaal towards attaining a ‘Viksit Bharat @ 2047’,” an official statement quoted Singh as saying.
The value addition to India’s growth is going to come from these unexplored regions during the next 25 years, the Minister of State for Personnel added.
Singh, who is also the Member Parliament (MP) from Udhampur constituency said, “The success of Aroma Mission and Purple Revolution in Bhaderwah and Gulmarg regions of J&K has resulted in over 3,000 start-ups engaged in lavender cultivation alone. Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh have sent delegations to J&K to study the lavender cultivation model and have evinced interest in emulating the Aroma Mission.”
He said that discovery of Lithium in Reasi district may well turn out to be “India’s next big story”, giving a multi-fold boost to the country’s economy. “Analysis suggests that the value of Lithium deposits in Reasi may be higher than (the one found) in China,” he said, stating that Lithium is a key component in rechargeable batteries and there is huge demand for Lithium as the world turns to renewable energy.
Stating that an increasing number of items from J&K have been geo-tagged, the Minister called upon the UT administration officers to promote sales of GI-tagged products from the UT to boost the local economy.
He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has introduced several governance reforms for the socio-economic upliftment of society. “I appeal to you to be catalysts of Centre’s governance reforms introduced by the Prime Minister and help in their effective implementation in Jammu and Kashmir,” he added.
The 7th capacity building programme is being attended by 26 JKAS officers working in the ranks of secretaries, special secretaries, additional secretaries, CEOs, directors, joint directors, development officers among others, the statement said.
The training workshop is tailored to equip civil servants of J&K in delivering robust and seamless services to the people, it said.