PM’s commitment of development in J&K a reality: Hardeep S Puri

Srinagar, Nov 14: Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri on Monday said that the Prime Minister’s commitment to the development of Jammu and Kashmir is turning into reality with works being undertaken in full swing. He stated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s development initiatives taken in Jammu and Kashmir have created an emotional bond between the people and the country.
“Central schemes directly benefit the people and I am glad that work is going on at the ground level,” the minister told media persons in Srinagar on Monday.
Puri said people are investing in the economic development in Jammu and Kashmir because of the Central Government’s farsighted decision to remove the bottleneck of Article 370 and 35A.
He said that a new dawn of development is now set in Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370 that could be judged from the fact that 25 new National Highway Projects have been sanctioned to be built at an estimated cost of 11,721 crores, 168 MoUs have been signed amounting to 13,600 crores, seven new medical colleges have been sanctioned with medical seats increasing from 500 to 955, world’s highest railway bridge constructed in J&K, Vande Bharat Express is in operation from Jammu to Delhi and tourist footfall increased to more than one lakh.
Puri said that under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, some 12 lakh LPG connections have been provided under PM Ujjwala, 50,000 houses have been sanctioned under PMAY (U). The Minister said that the petroleum prices have seen a sharp rise from July 2021 to August, 2022 with 43 percent to 46 percent increase in USA and Canada while India is the only country in the world where only 2 percent increase has been seen during that period. “When many countries in the world are witnessing the shortage of fuel and exorbitant price rise, there is no shortage of fuel in India even in the remotest corners of the country”, he added.