Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday released the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s manifesto for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly polls, which has promised Rs 18,000 annual allowance to women heads of households, increasing the PM Kisan Nidhi allowance by Rs 4,000 to Rs 10,000 to the Union Territory’s farmers, and lowering of electricity tariffs by 50 per cent for agricultural activities.
The manifesto has also promised Rs 3,000 transportation allowance each year to college students, and a 20 per cent quota for Agniveers in J&K government jobs, besides saying that a BJP government will build 10,000 km of new rural roads. It has promised to “conduct a free and fair census unlike yesteryears” to ensure “targeted interventions for marginalised communities”. It also talks of expediting “safe and sustainable mining of 5.9 million tonnes of lithium deposits”.
Unveiling the manifesto, which also commits to a BJP government in the Union Territory creating 500,000 employment opportunities, Shah said there has been a significant decrease in terror-related and stone-pelting incidents in the past 10 years in J&K.
“I have gone through the agenda of the National Conference and seen the Congress supporting it. I want to make it clear to the whole country that Article 370 and Article 35A have become history and will never make a comeback,” Shah said.
The manifesto states that J&K has received Rs 80,000 crore of investment proposals since the repealing of Article 370, and several infrastructure projects have been undertaken during the last five years, including the Chenab railway bridge, Banihal Qazigund Road Tunnel and the Delhi-Katra Greenfield Expressway.
Other highlights of “BJP’s 25 promises for a new J&K” include providing two free cooking gas cylinders a year to poor households, reimbursement of coaching fee of up to Rs 10,000 for two years and distributing tablets and laptops to higher secondary students in remote areas.
For the region’s economic development, the manifesto has promised setting up three regional development boards to monitor rollout of government schemes, establishment of IT hubs and pharmaceutical parks, and a new policy to resolve the concerns of small and medium enterprises. It has promised a rebate on “outstanding” water and power bills, and Rs 10,000 subsidy for PM Surya Ghar Yojana.
The BJP has promised to hike old-age and other pensions from Rs 1,000 to Rs 3,000, increase the coverage under Ayushman Bharat scheme from Rs 500,000 to Rs 700,000, and equipping “Village Defence Guards” with automatic weapons.
The Union Home Minister said a total of 7,217 (terror-related) incidents took place between 2004 and 2014 but the number dropped to 2,272 between 2014 and 2024, marking a 70 per cent decline. The overall killings also dropped by 76 per cent and civilian killings by 80 per cent while there is a huge downward trend in security force casualties, Shah said.
He said stone-pelting incidents dropped from 2,654 in 2010 to zero post-August 2019, while Pakistan-sponsored strikes also came down to zero from 132 earlier. Not a single person died nor were security personnel injured in stone-pelting incidents as compared to 112 deaths in the previous years, he said.
Shah said the NC manifesto also talks about reviewing the reservation policy. “I want to tell Omar Abdullah that whatever the results, we will not allow you to touch the reservation granted to Gujjars, Bakerwals and Pahadis,” the Union Home Minister said.
First Published: Sep 06 2024 | 9:22 PM IST
