Landmark Bills, Security Boost, and Tourism Triumph

New Delhi, Dec 31

The year 2023 was a watershed year for the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) as many landmark strides were made toward the progress and development in Jammu and Kashmir to fulfill Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of safe, secure, inclusive, and Aatmanirbhar Bharat.

An official spokesman in a statement issued to the Press Information Bureau said that the Parliament passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023, and Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023.

Following the policy of zero tolerance against terrorism under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and guidance of Home Minister Amit Shah, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) declared four organisations as ‘terrorist organisations’, seven individuals as ‘terrorists’, and three organisations as ‘unlawful association’ in 2023.

Huge success was achieved in improving the law and order situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

The 3rd Tourism Working meeting of G20 was held from May 22 to 24, 2023, at Srinagar

Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation, Amit Shah replied to the discussion on J&K Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023, and J&K Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023, in the Rajya Sabha, and the house passed the bills after discussion.

These bills would add another pearl to the chain of hundreds of progressive changes brought under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

These bills are going to provide rights and justice to those who were treated unjustly and insulted and ignored for 70 years.

These bills would give rights and representation to displaced Kashmiris, by giving reservation to displaced Kashmiris, they will have voice in the Kashmir Assembly and if a situation of displacement arises again, they themselves will stop it.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah chaired a high-level security review meeting and addressed a news conference in Jammu on the security situation in J&K on January 13.

He said that following the policy of zero tolerance against terrorism under the leadership of PM Modi, all security agencies were fighting a decisive battle against terrorism.

He said that a 360-degree security mechanism would be further strengthened to completely eliminate the support and information system of terrorists.

Shah said that compared to the time when the menace of terrorism started in J&K, there had been the least number of incidents and deaths in recent times.

He inaugurated Maa Sharda Devi Temple at Kupwara, Jammu and Kashmir through video conferencing on March 22.

Shah said that the reconstruction of Maa Sharda’s temple in Kupwara was a necessary and important step in the direction of discovery of Sharda civilisation and promotion of Sharda script.

He said that Sharda Peeth had been a historical centre of India's cultural, religious, and educational heritage like Kartarpur Corridor and the government under PM Modi would move forward to open Sharda Peeth for devotees.

Shah held a review meeting on the security situation of J&K in New Delhi on April 13.

Reviewing the functioning of the security grid and various aspects related to security, he reiterated that under the leadership of PM Modi, the Centre was committed towards zero tolerance against terrorism.

Shah also reviewed the area domination plan, zero terror plan, law and order situation, cases related to UAPA, and other security related issues.

He laid the foundation stone of Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), Samba, and inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of various development schemes in Jammu.

Shah said by removing Article 370, PM Modi had given the rights of reservation to hill communities, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, women and senior citizens, this justice could have been ensured by Modi only.

The G-20 summit was successfully organised in Srinagar recently, during this conference the leaders of many countries took the message of good tourism of Kashmir and the message of improved situation in Kashmir reached the whole world.

Shah inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of 84 development projects of about Rs 586 crore in Srinagar on June 23.

He said that during the rule of the previous governments in J&K, democracy was limited to 80-85 people only and 3 families had taken control over the democracy, these people did not allow panchayat elections to be conducted, did not allow panch-sarpanch to be elected and did not allow tehsil and district panchayats to be formed.

The Home Minister said that under the DBT scheme, Rs 23,000 crore had been transferred directly to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries in the past four years, earlier, the money used to get sanctioned but it was siphoned off due to corruption.

He addressed the Vitasta Mahotsav organised by the Ministry of Culture as the chief guest in Srinagar on June 23.

Shah said that only art, culture and history can unite the country and Vitasta Mahotsav was a unique event to unite India.

On June 24, he also laid the foundation stone of ‘Balidan Stambh’ in Srinagar, met with the family members of Police personnel killed in encounters and distributed appointment letters to them.

The Home Minister said that J&K is the land of indomitable courage and bravery of the nation's brave hearts and that Balidan Stambh was being made to ensure that the valour of such heroes becomes immortal.

He said that the J&K Police personnel who sacrificed their lives while fighting terrorists and securing innocent citizens was proof that Kashmir and its people were committed towards peace.

Shah welcomed the Supreme Court’s ruling to uphold the decision to abolish Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir and said that on August 5, 2019, PM Modi took a visionary decision to abrogate Article 370 from J&K.

He said that the apex court’s verdict had proved that the decision to abrogate Article 370 was completely constitutional.

The Home Minister said that after the abrogation of Article 370, the rights of the poor and deprived had been restored, and separatism and stone pelting were now things of the past.

The Mata Sharda Devi Temple in Kupwara district was lit up on the Diwali celebrations this year for the first time in 75 years.

Shah said that the temple was rebuilt to rejuvenate the sacred and centuries old pilgrimage to Sharda Peeth temple in PoK.

The Amarnath Yatra, 2023, was successfully completed in August, 2023 with 4.45 lakhs yatris visiting the cave shrine, which is the highest in the last 10 years.

J&K witnessed a significant improvement in security scenario after the abrogation of Article 370.

The terrorist initiated incidents decreased from 228 in 2018 to 44 in 2023; encounters decreased from 189 to 48; civilians killings from 55 to 13, security personnel killed from 91 to 26.

After the abrogation of Article 370 from J&K, bandhs and street violence has become a thing of the past.

J&K witnessed drastic improvement in stone pelting and hartals.

Stone pelting incidents decreased from 1221 in 2018 to zero in 2023 while hartals decreased from 52 in 2018 to zero.

The Centre notified a New Central Sector Scheme for Industrial Development of J&K in 2021 with an outlay of Rs 28, 400 crore to boost industrial development.

During FY 2022-23, an investment of Rs 2153.45 crore has been realised in the industrial sector.

In the current financial year 2023-24 an investment of Rs 2326.65 crore has been realised upto November, 2023.

Handloom and Handicraft Exports doubled from Rs 563 crore in 2021-22 to 1116.37 crore in 2022-23.

Tourism Sector in J&K witnessed unprecedented growth in the year 2022 with more than 1.88 crore tourists visiting J&K.

In the current financial year more than 2 crore tourists have arrived upto Dec. 2023.

The 3rd Tourism Working Group meeting of G-20 was held from May 22 to 24 at Srinagar.

The event placed J&K on the global stage and served as a significant milestone in the progress and development of tourism in J&K.

To boost tourism various policies including Film Policy, House Boat Policy and Home Stay Policy were launched.

Under the Home Stay Policy 1485 home stays with the bed capacity of 10,040 have been registered.

Nine tourists routes and 30 trekking routes were opened in J&K and Ladakh.

The AB-PMJAY-SEHAT scheme, a universal health insurance scheme that provides free of cost insurance cover to all the residents of J&K upto Rs 5 lakh per family.

A total of 82.22 lakh beneficiaries have been registered under this scheme and a total of 8.87 lakh beneficiaries availed benefit under this schemes and claims paid amounting to Rs 1325 crore.

Jammu is the only city in the country to have IIT, IIM and AIIMS in one city.

Horizontal reservation to the extent of 15 percent in the available vacancies in direct recruitment has been provided for women candidates in Non-Gazetted ranks in J&K Police services.

More than 62 lakh participation of youth was witnessed in different sports activities in the year 2022-23 compared to less than two lakh during 2018-19.

The J&K government took concrete steps to fill all the vacancies available across various departments in J&K.

After 2019, 31,830 selections (Gazetted and Non-Gazetted) have been finalised by the recruiting agencies till date.

A total of 7.4 lakh self-employment and livelihood opportunities were generated and strengthened since the year 2021-22.

After a period of three decades, a film theatre opened in Jammu and Kashmir.

e-Bus Sewa was started in Jammu and Srinagar.

Under the PoJK schemes financial assistance of Rs 5.5 lakh per family was provided to the 36,384 displaced families of PoJK and Chhamb, which settled in J&K to mitigate the hardships of the displaced families.

The timeline of the scheme has been extended upto March 31, 2024.

As of now, a total amount of Rs 1452.63 crore has been disbursed to 33636 beneficiaries.

Under the West Pakistani Refugees (WPRs) scheme, one-time financial assistance of Rs 5.5 lakh per family to the 5764 WPR families is provided for enhancement of income of eligible WPR families for running small business or carrying out other land based activities.

Following the policy of zero tolerance against terrorism under the leadership of PM Modi and guidance of Home Minister Amit Shah, MHA declared four organisations as terrorist organisations, seven individual as terrorist, and three organisations as unlawful association in 2023.

The government declared two organisations The Resistance Front (TRF) and People’s Anti-Fascist-Front (PAFF) as terrorist Organisation by amending entries at Serial No 5 and 6 in the First Schedule of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 on January 5 and January 6, 2023.

The government declared two organisations Jammu and Kashmir Ghaznavi Force (JKGF) and Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) as terrorist organisations under the First Schedule of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 on February 17, 2023.

In January, the government declared five terrorists under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 (as amended in 2019) and their names were added to the Fourth Schedule of the said act.

In February 2023, the government declared a terrorist under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 (as amended in 2019) and the name was added to the Fourth Schedule of the said act.

In December 2023, the government declared a terrorist under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 (as amended in 2019) and the name was added to the Fourth Schedule of the said act.

The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Tribunal, vide its order dated March 21, 2023, confirmed the notification issued by the Central Government on September 27, 2022, under which the Popular Front of India (PFI) and its associates or affiliates or fronts were declared as an unlawful association.

The Central Government vide Notification No S O 4348 (E) dated October 5, 2023 declared Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party (JKDFP) as an unlawful association under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.

The Centre declared ‘Muslim League Jammu Kashmir (Masarat Alam faction) as an unlawful association under Section 3(1) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) 1967.

The Centre declared Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, Jammu and Kashmir as an unlawful association under Section 3(1) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) 1967.