Jammu, December 03: TheState of Jammu and Kashmir is in dire need of rapid development for which huge projects need to be established in the length and breadth of the state according to the actual requirements of respective regions.
However for such a growth we need out-of-box thinking and innovative ideas to conceive new projects and also implement those projects on urgent basis which have already been allotted to the state.
But on the contrary what we do is to create official red tape and legal bottlenecks making sure the development dies premature death before being seen on ground.
The problem in J&K lies with the lethargic attitude of the bureaucracy, political leadership and obsolete laws that hardly conform to the new and changing requirements of the society thus hampering the development in the state instead of giving it a push.
The things here keep lingering on for decades together with little thought going to the fact that we need to act rather than crib about the official bottlenecks and red tape.
The never completing Artificial Lake on Tawi is one example that explains it all as the lake project which was conceived during the time of the then Chief Minister Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah is still in the idea stage only due to official lethargy and bottle necks in providing clearances on urgent basis.
The latest to hit the road block according to a local newspaper is the establishment of IIT in Jammu which the paper says has met the first roadblock as the forest ministry has refused to provide clearance to 3500 kanals of land required at Jagti in Nagrota citing legal issues concerning environment.
The development if true is a bad news for the region as such hurdles have been responsible for the under development of the region adding to the discrimination that this region has faced over the years.
The forest ministry headed by the Jammu based person should have been more sensitive to the aspirations of Jammu region and instead of creating hurdles for the project should have worked overtime to give clearance to the project and as far as the forest and environment things are concerned he must have been aware that such huge projects work as big green belts adding to the forestry rather than depleting it.
Meanwhile the contradiction was again visible as the government today held a meeting under the chairmanship of Divisional Commissioner Jammu and discussed the establishment of IIT in Jammu at Jagti in Nagrota area.
The Div Com also asked for speeding up of the process and cutting of trees and other things were also discussed indicating that government was going ahead with the project.
The question here is who is right, the government or the news report and if anyone is wrong then it needs some explanation from the concerned.
At the same time it is also possible that it may be yet another damage control exercise by the government to divert the attention of the people from the news report as it would have given birth to another controversy in Jammu region with reports pouring in that Jammu was being denied IIT to shift it to Kashmir valley.
The situation demands that government must stop playing with the sentiments of Jammu people and speedup the process of establishing IIT, IIM and AIIMs in Jammu without befooling the public anymore and also provide the legal clearances as soon as possible to convert the projects into real development of the region.