Article 370 blocked NE success stories from being replicated in JK: Singh

Union minister Jitendra Singh on Tuesday said Article 370, which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, had blocked the success stories of the Northeast from being replicated in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

Addressing the curtain raiser event, as chief guest, on the eve of "North East Expo 2019" here, Singh said the revolutionary transformation that the northeastern states have undergone over the last five years of the Modi government, is of such an "unimaginable magnitude" that it is to be seen to be believed.

The Union minister for the development of the northeastern region (DoNER) said his only regret sometimes is that while Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been extraordinarily indulgent and patronising to uplift the peripheral regions of India, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh could not receive the same benefits as Northeast, simply because of the vested embargoes imposed in the name of Article 370.

The central government on August 5 announced the abrogation of Article 370 and creation of two Union territories Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

Singh said, for example, while a small northeastern state like Mizoram with a population of mere 10 lakh has in the last two years set up Indian subcontinent's first-of-its-kind specialised "Citrus Food Park" with Israel's collaboration which has been hailed as a "Centre of Excellence", Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, despite their abundant food and horticulture resources, could not achieve a single such achievement.

Similarly, he said, while India's first Bamboo Industrial Park has become operative on the Guwahati-Shillong highway, why could J&K not have an industrial setup devoted to Saffron or Pashmina, or in the case of fruit apple or strawberry.