india

Updated: Sep 08, 2019 17:50 IST

Abrogation of Article 370 and 35A and bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories enabling the region to benefit from the laws related to Right to Education, employment, reservation, minority welfare etc, was one of the biggest achievements of the Narendra Modi 2.0 government, Union minister Prakash Javadekar said while presenting government’s 100-day report card on Sunday.

“Not a single bullet has been fired in the last 35 days and only one small terror- related incident has been recorded, which is unprecedented,” Javadekar said, suggesting that the government had the situation in the militancy-hit region under control.

“Section 144 is in effect in only 14 police stations in Jammu and Kashmir and reporters from all major networks are in the valley, reporting,” he added, to suggest that the ground situation was for everyone to see.

He also took a dig at Pakistan over its attempt to internationalise the J&K issue.

“We can understand Pakistan’s desperation and despondence as Kashmir has been central to their internal politics for a long time,” Javadekar said while adding that Pakistan’s “knocking on every country’s doors” had not borne fruit, as “the world stood with India” on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir.

The minister counted government’s promise to provide piped water to every home in the next five years under the Jal Shakti programme as another major landmark decision taken in the first 100 days. He said it was aimed to empower the women of the country.

“Lakhs of women still travel for kilometers to get water, taking water to every home will empower women and increase their productivity. This is a revolutionary step to be achieved in the next 5 years,” he said.

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On the question of the economy, the minister said, the current situation didn’t warrant any panic, as the fundamentals of Indian economy remained strong and the reforms undertaken by the government will soon provide the necessary push to growth.

“Sometimes slowdown is a cyclical process, but fundamentals of Indian economy are strong, we have received record FDI, more than China, in the last year, our domestic industry is on a strong footing and because of some changes made in the rules, we are expecting a rise in the foreign investment in the coming days,” he said.

The minister described the decision taken to merge 10 national banks into four, as the “right step in the right direction” which, according to him, “will result in synergies”.

The Union minister also defended the steep penalties introduced in the Motor Vehicles Act 2019 and said it was meant to prevent large number of deaths and accidents recorded every year.

“Every year over 1.5 lakh people die in 4 lakh accidents while another 5 lakh get injured,” he said and suggested the act reasonably demanded that fitness certificate, license, pollution control certificate, ownership papers, etc were kept in order. “There has to be some accountability,” he said and hoped that “responsible driving” will soon end the reason for police to slap penalties.