Govt’s Mega Public Outreach: A Welcome Step

After the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019, Central Government launched a special public outreach programmes for the people of J&K to reach out to the ground issues being faced by the people. It was a way to win the hearts of the people of J&K and to address the long pending issues being faced by every sector in J&K.
Since 2019, two public mega outreach programmes were conducted by the Central Government. Around 36 Union Ministers toured the UT in 2020 for about nine weeks. The second public outreach programme began on September 09 this year with over 70 Union Ministers visiting the UT and directly interacting with the people, administration and representatives of the Panchayati Raj Institutions on various developmental and governance issues.
These outreach programmes have been a welcome step in the development process of the UT as all the sectors have been provided with the new innovations and techniques to boost the socio-economic conditions of the people of the UT.
Various Public Outreach Programmes have been conducted since September 10. The visits were aimed to meet the different delegations of the concerned departments and to inaugurate various new developmental projects. Likewise, the minister of Tribal Affairs visited district Bandipora on September 16 as part of the programme. Although the visit was aimed to reach the tribal population of the area and to listen to their issues but the way it was conducted was too far away from reaching to them. The minister launched some schemes in the presence of some officers and party workers to change the socio-economic condition of the tribal people with special focus on skill development and employment generation.
Likewise, 13 other public outreach programmes were conducted in the month of September and October, some of which include fruit growing innovative methods, toddler development causes, schemes for export of textiles, support to animal husbandry departments, boosting trout fish farming, metro rail project etc. The list of these programmes can prove an overall development to the UT of J&K, but will it be possible for Central Government to buckle up these projects in a specified time?
The projects and schemes which are to be provided for the development of UT will only reach to grassroots level if these projects and schemes will be built up in a specified time and the schemes for public benefits should not only be time bound just to write in records, but to continue these schemes till every sector of UT flourishes like never before.