Amit Shah visited the family of J&K Police inspector Arshad Ahmed Khan, who was killed in a terror attack in A... Read More

NEW DELHI: On his visit to Kashmir as Union home minister, Amit Shah asked the civil administration to dismantle the “corrupt and elitist” structure and reach out to the last citizen of the state.

“Let an ordinary Kashmiri feel that it is his government and not of the elites,” Shah told the state bureaucracy two days ago in Srinagar . Officials who attended the meetings told TOI that the home minister “asked the administration to reorient the state” towards the needs of individual citizens.

The home minister’s brief to several officials, sources said, was somewhat on the lines of the National Conference founder Sheikh Abdullah’s ‘Naya Kashmir’ — socio-economic blueprint for a welfare state. The plan eventually paved way for bloodless and revolutionary land reforms in Kashmir. It also overthrew the landed elite out of power.

Sources said the home minister gave clear instructions to clean up corruption and prosecute those who have “milked the system” so that an ordinary Kashmiri feels empowered. Arguing that village representation in governance was the “bedrock of participative democracy ,” Shah told officials to strengthen Panchayats and urban local bodies as third tier of the government. He asked them to ensure that the massive funds assigned to them were utilised.

Unlike his predecessors, sources said, Shah did not focus on the PM’s package for the state but went into the details of governance of J&K and gave ideas and solutions for the concerns raised by several delegations. Shah told the officials that he wanted the citizens of the state to avail the benefits of 354 central schemes like old age, disability and widow pensions and stipend for pregnant women.

“The home minister told a Gujjar delegation, after acknowledging their sacrifices for the nation, how they could contribute to value addition by roping in Mother Dairy or Amul cooperatives for milk collection, processing and distribution,” an officer who attended the meeting said.

Shah also warned the civil administration that he would personally monitor the progress of all the projects and schemes on a quarterly basis.



In Video: Amit Shah directs J&K officials to ‘Dismantle the ‘corrupt and elitist’ structure’