PM does not discriminate, has risen above votebank politics: Jitendra Singh

Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not discriminate among the people of the country and has risen above votebank politics, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said on Sunday.

Only under this government has development reached the last man in the queue, said Singh, the Union Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office.

"Rising above vote politics, Modi has, in the last nine years, ensured equitable development of every region and justice to all," he said at a public rally in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district.

Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri also attended the rally and released a coffee table book depicting major projects launched by Singh as Udhampur MP over the past nine years.

Singh said he has followed the same spirit and sought to emulate the same culture as the prime minister in his constituency, which encompasses the Udhampur-Kathua-Doda region.

The best example of this, he said, is the Keediyan-Gadwal bridge -- constructed at a cost of Rs 150 crore -- to cater to just one-and-a-half panchayats to meet the decades-long demand of locals.

"This is the place where Shyama Prasad Mukherjee (founder of the BJP's forerunner, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh) was arrested before he passed away mysteriously, thus laying down his life for the duty of karyakartas like us to develop this town of Kathua and the entire constituency with full commitment befitting the legacy of the great leaders," he said.

The minister said his constituency is the most developed in the country and has seen tremendous development in the past nine years under the Modi government.

"The Udhampur-Doda-Kathua constituency is the only constituency in India having three centrally funded medical colleges and the best infrastructure making it the best constituency with state-of-the-art health care facilities," he said.

Singh said the constituency has earned its name in the country and globally as the birthplace of the 'Purple Revolution', which has given rise to more than 3,000 agri-tech start-ups not only in Jammu and Kashmir but across the country.

"This constituency has all the potential to contribute in the start-up movement promoted by the prime minister," Singh said.

He also listed the various infrastructure development projects in the constituency over the past nine years -- the world's highest railway bridge, India's longest tunnel (Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Tunnel), the first highway village, the Devika river rejuvenation project, north India's first biotech park, National Institute of High Altitude Medicine -- and said these make it an infrastructural marvel in the country.

Singh also highlighted the road and highway infrastructure development, including the Katra to Delhi Vande-Bharat Express, north India's first cable-stayed bridge (Atal Setu), north India's first express road corridor from Delhi to Katra via Kathua, the new Lakhanpur-Bani-Basohli-Doda national highway via the Chattargala Tunnel and the construction of more than 200 bridges, and said these have made the constituency the best connected, leading to its tremendous development.

The establishment of an Inter-Modal Station (IMS) at Katra, a world-class project, will not only improve the travel experience of the pilgrims visiting the Vaishno Devi shrine but will open numerous opportunities for employment and trade for people in the constituency, the minister noted.