August 5, 2022 marks three years since the Narendra Modi government revoked special status for Jammu and Kashmir by diluting Article 370 and bifurcating the state into two Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh.
In the last three years, J&K has seen unprecedented advancements in industrial investments, sports, employment and other fields. In Budget 2022-23, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman allocated capital expenditure of Rs 312.57 crore for youth-related activities in the Union Territory.
To boost self-employment opportunities, Rs 200 crore has been categorically provisioned under the “Mission Youth Programme” under which private-sector job fairs and training will be imparted to youth to build an entrepreneurial environment.
Recently, Minister of State for Home informed Parliament that more than 29,000 youths have been provided with government jobs, while job avenues for more than 5 lakh youth have been created through self-employment schemes since August 5, 2019.
Here’s a look at what has changed for J&K and its residents in the last three years:
Since 2019, the government of Jammu and Kashmir has recruited a total of 29,806 people for the public sector. Additionally, it is estimated that self-employment programmes generated 5.2 lakh new jobs between August 2019 and June 2022
Projects being carried out under Prime Minister’s Development Package-2015 have advanced more quickly since 2019. At a cost of Rs 58,477 crore, 53 projects related to 15 ministries are being carried out. Of these, 29 projects have been finished or are nearly finished, and the remaining projects are in advanced stages of development
For industrial development in J&K, a new central sector scheme with an outlay of Rs 28,400 crore was announced on February 19, 2021. Applications for investments totalling more than Rs 54,000 crore have been submitted to Jammu and Kashmir, and industrial land has been allocated for projects worth more than Rs 36,000 crore
A total of 1,193 projects worth Rs 1,984 crore were finished as part of the languishing projects initiative, including 165 projects that had been unfinished for more than 10 years and five projects that had been unfinished for more than 20 years
Under the Swachh Bharat Mission, J&K has been designated an Open Defecation Free (ODF) area
Up until March 2022, 17,601 km of road under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna had been built, connecting 2,074 locations. Completed and made accessible to traffic are the new Banihal tunnel and Chenani Nashri tunnel
International flight from Srinagar to Sharjah was started on October 23, 2021. In addition, night flights from Jammu and Srinagar have also been launched
Mango, litchi, cherry, walnut and other trees have been added to the High-Density Plantation Scheme for Apple. Saffron from Kashmir has received Geographical Indication (GI) tag
To ensure J&K’s overall development, budget allocation for the UT has steadily increased from Rs 80,423 crore in 2019–20 to Rs 92,341 crore in 2020–21, Rs 10,8621 crore in 2021–22 and Rs 1,12,950 crore in 2022–23
Post-2019, J&K has started making progress in enhancing its power generation capacity. In this regard, five mega hydropower projects — Ratle (824 MW), Kirthai-II (930 MW), Sawalakote (1856 MW), Dulhasti-Stage II (258 MW), and Uri-I Stage-II (240 MW) — with a combined capacity of 4,134 MW have been accepted for execution in cooperation with NHPC. These projects are expected to cost Rs 34,882 crore. When completed, J&K will have an excess of power
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