DODA: Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh and BJP Candidate for Udhampur, Doda, Kathua Lok Sabha constituency said here today that whereas for nearly six decades the successive Congress and its allied governments including the UPA government from 2004 to 2014 could not provide a decent road connectivity even between the two premier towns of Doda and Bhaderwah in district Doda, it was only after Prime Minister Narendra Modi took over in 2014 that the government headed by him connected even remote villages of the district with the National Highway. Addressing a series of public meetings during his election tour of some of the peripheral hill villages of the district in areas like Marmat, Gandoh, Kastigarh, Bulandpur, Goha, Dhara etc., Dr Jitendra Singh said that even his own native village Kalota did not have a very comfortable road connectivity but the same village now is going to get linked to the new National Highway 244 which is under construction in double shift from Khilani to Sudhmahadev and will be complete in the next few months. Along with Kalota, the other neighbouring villages like Humbal and Bergana etc., will also get linked with this highway, he informed. Describing this as a revolutionary transformation, Dr Jitendra Singh recalled that these are some of the far flung villages where many of our ancestors would not get to see even a motor car in their lifetime but today they are going to get the benefit of a national highway passing through their vicinity. This, he said, will be a great boost particularly for the youth and the next generation who will be benefited by drastically reduced travel time between Doda and other destinations like Jammu and Srinagar, and thus at the same time will also benefit trade, revenue and employment generation. Accusing the Congress and its allied governments of the past, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the irony is that since independence there has not been a single occasion when an MLA from this region or district was not a Minister in the State Cabinet or the MP from this region who was not a member of the Union Council of Ministers but in spite of that they did not care for the development of their own native villages which also have been provided with basic amenities like Post Office and Bank Branches only after 2014. Dr Jitendra Singh said, it will be a subject of analyses for future historians to understand why for over half a century this region was allowed to remain underdeveloped. Is this because the elected representatives of Congress and its allied parties from this region deliberately did not want the development process to be undertaken in this region so that the people of this region remained backward and uninformed forever and could be fooled into casting their votes after every five years. Dr Jitendra Singh said, in the last 10 years under Prime Minister Modi we have sought to follow a new work culture where benefits of equitable development and resources have been provided to every region regardless of vote bank considerations. For example, he said, this is the only constituency which has got not one or two but three centrally funded medical colleges out of which one is in Doda. Similarly, Dr Jitendra Singh said, this is the constituency which got the maximum number of degree colleges in the last few years regardless of vote bank consideration.This, he said, has given rise to a new realisation among the people of this region where all the communities live in harmony that Prime Minister Modi has successfully demolished the false myths and narrative created by the Congress Party about the BJP, and that BJP is the only party which follows in letter and spirit the approach of appeasement of none and justice for all. Accompanying Dr Jitendra Singh in this tour were former Minister and MLA Doda Shakti Parihar, former MLA Bhaderwah Dilip Singh Parihar, BJP President Vijay Thakur, DDC members, Sarpanches, local PRIs and prominent activists of the region
