Union Minister and BJP candidate for Udhampur Lok Sabha constituency Dr Jitendra Singh on Friday said that the BJP supports separate district status for Basohli-Billawar and the long standing demand of the people will be met when the next district reorganisation committee is set up by the NDA Government.

Dr Jitendra Singh, who was addressing a series of election rallies, said considering the vast area of district Kathua, there are logistic and practical problems faced by residents of this region to reach out to various administrative offices based in Kathua.

He said the BJP has been in favour of a separate hill district comprising Basohli and Billawar regions and we took up this issue even when we were in opposition. The evidence of this is that in the BJP organisational structure, Basohli-Billawar enjoys the status of a separate hill district and we have a separate BJP District President for Kathua and a separate one for Basohli, he said.

He said Basohli was deliberately neglected by its Congress representatives in the past, including its MLAs and MPs who followed a Kashmir-centric appeasement policy of their masters and thus themselves became a party to regional discrimination against the very constituency which had elected them.

Instead of being benefited by the MLAs or MPs who became Ministers in Congress governments, the people of Basohli had to pay the price for further worsening of their plight due to such opportunistic representatives, he added.

Dr Jitendra Singh said in the last 10 years under the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi Basohli paintings and Basohli Pashmina received GI Tag and earned worldwide reputation.

It is under Prime Minister Modi that Basohli received a network of road connectivity, as a result of which the travel time between Jammu and Basohli has considerably reduced bringing a lot of relief and convenience to daily commuters and ease of business for the industry.

Dr Jitendra Singh said that Basohli richly deserve the status of being designated as the “Heritage Town” for which the initiative has already been undertaken.

He said, there is a proper procedure laid out for being conferred the status of Heritage Town and the recognition of status has to come from accredited agencies which will also happen under the Modi Government.

Under Prime Minister Modi, Dr Jitendra Singh said, for the first time this region has started getting its equitable share of both development as well as resources.