Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Thursday said that Article 370 was a hindrance in the development of Jammu and Kashmir and urged the youth of the state to understand the ground reality and be a part of development and growth of the country.
"Youth should free themselves from all fear they had in mind. Article 370 was a hindrance in the development of Jammu and Kashmir. The time has come that the youth from J-K also understand the reality and be a part of the development and growth of the country," he said.
During an interaction with a delegation of students from remote areas of Jammu and Kashmir, studying in the national capital, Singh expressed confidence that with the abrogation of Article 370, the youth of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh region would benefit.
"Now better health care, education, employment opportunities for youth, better pay structure and benefits for government servants at par with central government employees would be available to the people of the state," he said.
He said these benefits would be given irrespective of religious, caste and creed distinctions and encouraged the youth to work hard and avail of the benefits, which are now available to them.
Singh said interactions with students and the feedback received from the ground busts the myth spread by people with vested interests that Article 370 was inevitable for Jammu and Kashmir being a part of India and the youth of the state would not accept the decision.
"Due to the misperception and negative propaganda by some anti-social elements, the youth of J-K were deprived of the fruits of development that were available to the youth from other parts of the country," he said citing example of IIT Jammu which was approved by Centre, but could not get a Director due to circumstances prevailing in the state.
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He said a similar situation used to prevail with AIIMS and IIM, as students used to leave the state for better opportunities since outsiders could not buy land and start ventures in J-K.
Noting that the youth of J-K have a high IQ level but were being deprived of opportunities, he said, "This situation would change now," he said. Their potential needs to be tapped."
The students expressed hope that the people who got displaced from the state would again get the opportunity to return to their roots.
"They expressed hope that after the abrogation of Article 370, Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh would witness socio-economic development and free the people from the evil of terrorism," an official statement said.
Singh said the feedback of the students from the ground was very important for the government and assured that such meetings would be held in future on a regular basis to get feedback from the youth of the state on the pace of development on the ground.