Nine union ministers visited nine places across Jammu region on the second day of its public outreach program across Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday.
Union minister Smriti Irani went to Katra, Mahendranath Pandey visited Dhanshal, Arjun Ram Meghwal visited Kathua, G. Muralidharan also visited Kathua, while Anurag Thakur and Piyush Goyal did their public outreach programmes in Jammu.
Apart from these, Union minister Jitendra Singh visited Udhampur, RK Dodha and Ashwini Choubey visited Samba.
Expressing grief for the Kashmiri Pandits, Union minister Anurag Thakur who was in Jammu said, “I think right time has come for Kashmiri Pandits to be back in Kashmir and to get their rights back. It’s not only time but they’ve lost everything in life.”
“They didn’t deserve to go through the treatment they’ve gone through. They have hope now,” he added.
It is to be noted that today marks the 30th anniversary for the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits who were persecuted.
As part of the Centre’s public outreach initiative, 36 ministers are on a week-long visit to 60 locations across Jammu and Kashmir.
The ministers are travelling in batches and meeting government officials. They are also holding public contact programmes to apprise the people about different schemes of the government.
This is the third mega visit in Jammu and Kashmir after the revocation of Article 370 on August 5. Earlier this month, 15 envoys visited the Union Territories to see the conditions of people there. Before these two visits, an EU delegation also visited Jammu and Kashmir in October last year.
However, these visits continuously came under the attack of the opposition who is demanding the government to allow them to visit the two Union Territories and interact with the people there.
The communication blockade is also being lifted by the government gradually as on Saturday, voice calling services and SMS services were restored on prepaid SIM cards in Jammu and Kashmir while the 2G internet connectivity was restored on postpaid connections in Kashmir.