Militancy pushed J&K back by 20 years: Omar Abdullah

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today said Jammu and Kashmir lagged behind other states in terms of development due to eruption of militancy more than 20 years ago. “Our development remained at a stand still while other states went further ahead on the road to progress because of the period of militancy that gripped the state for over 20 years,” Omar said addressing a public meeting at Lalpora in Kupwara district, 120-kms from here. [caption id=“attachment_1284185” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  PTI[/caption] He said that the prevailing gun culture had caused not only economic disaster, but also the loss of precious human life in the state. The government has worked sincerely and with a commitment to make good the losses and the damage caused by gun and put the economy back on rails, the chief minister said. “We worked for restoration of peace and tranquillity, made sincere efforts to safeguard human rights, reform the security and law and order machinery, to create employment opportunities, upgrade roads and launch new power projects during the last five years which have started showing encouraging results on the ground,” he said. Omar said his party fought the elections in 2008 to address the development issues and day-to-day problems of the people, and made it clear that contesting elections would not amount to the resolution of all the political issues confronting Jammu and Kashmir. He said besides devoting its full attention on the comprehensive development of Jammu and Kashmir in all the regions and sub-regions equitably, “we worked sincerely for creating an atmosphere where under political issues could be addressed politically through the process of dialogue.” Omar announced special sub-divisions of Roads and Buildings department, Public Health Engineering Department and Irrigation and Flood Control Departments for Lolab area. He said all the other demands of the area would be given due consideration by the government. PTI