JEDDAH, 31 January 2005 — The 60 percent turnout of voters in the first phase of civic elections held in Jammu & Kashmir on Saturday is “yet another evidence” of the waning support to militancy in the state. The other evidence is the figure of nearly one million tourists visiting the state last year and heavy bookings from visitors for 2005.
“Sixty percent turnout at the state’s civic elections is better than the average in the national parliamentary election. People have been feeling neglected and isolated and lagging behind the rest of the country due to militancy, and the civic election turnout should be serve as the right message to whatever militants remaining in the state. They are keen to have their share of globalization and industrialization,” India’s federal Urban Development and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad who led a 36-member Haj goodwill delegation, told reporters at Hotel Trident shortly before his return home.
Hinting that there was already a perceptible change in the troubled Kashmir’s tourist industry, Azad said some tourist infrastructure was still in tact, although part of it was destroyed during the past 15-year militancy.
He said the federal government’s offer of package to Kashmir would surely help in going ahead with various plans including seven to eight hydro electric projects, each generating employment for up to 6,000 people. Most of these projects are in water-rich Doda district that is between Jammu and Kashmir, said Azad who hails from the district.
Many more international tourists would come with the commissioning of the new terminal building at Srinagar airport shortly, he added.
Border fencing had reduced infiltration of militants from across the border 90 to 95 percent, he said, adding that Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf should send his reported proposals for finding solutions to the contentious Kashmir issue rather than “loosely talking” about it.
Azad, considered to be a confidant of Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi, said he was confident that the party and other UPA allies would sweep the upcoming elections in all three states - Haryana, Jharkhand and Bihar. “The country now has the best government. We’ve Dr. Manmohan Singh, a proven economist of international stature heading the UPA government as prime minister. More than politics, what the country needs is rapid economic development generating employment and he is articulating right economic measures toward the direction,” he said, adding that the government is also “well entrenched” for completing the remaining part of its five-year term and will surely come back for the next term with the Congress and its allies returning with a bigger mandate.
