Jammu, Sept 7 (Representative) Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh on Tuesday said that Modi government is reaching out to the remotest of the remote and seeking to make up for the negligence of over six decades meted out to far-flung regions by the past governments led by Congress and National Conference.Singh addressing a public rally in the peripheral hilly location of Dudu in the higher reaches of the Udhampur district referring to the region, said the development of the last eight years under Prime Minister Narendra Modi far surpasses the development of the past several decades. For the last three years, he pointed out, Udhampur has been figuring as the top district of the country in implementation of centrally funded PMGSY road projects. Similarly, several important new national highways are under construction in the region which includes Sudhmahadev-Marmat-Goha-Khelani National Highway and Lakhanpur-Bani-Bhaderwah-Doda Highway.
He informed that the critical Chattergala Tunnel enroute the second highway got delayed because of the heavy budget of over Rs.4,000 crore, but will now be taken under Bharatmala scheme. Earlier, the Minister inaugurated a mega Multi Speciality Medical Camp organised by the Indian Army through Command Hospital Udhampur. Dr Singh thanked Air Commander General Dwivedi and the medical team led by Major General Dr. Dash for providing health care facilities to the people who were actually in need but sometimes found it difficult to access it. Addressing the rally, he said Dudu and other such hilly regions were endowed with amazing mountainous beauty and mountainous resources. Nature, he said, had bestowed in abundance but were they faced injustice in the hands of their own elected governments headed by Congress and National Conference, which did not find them of much consequence because of the vote bank consideration.
Referring to nearby Mantlai, Dr Singh said, a state of the art wellness centre with even a helipad for the outsider visitors will be ready very soon through central funding. He lamented that Dhirendra Bhrahmchari who had initiated this project was patronised by the then Congress Government but after his death in an air accident over three decades back, the Congress govt did not care for the project and it was in shambles. It is only now, after PM Modi took over that the issue was brought to the notice of the Central Govt and the project was undertaken, he said. Udhampur, said Dr Jitendra Singh, is perhaps the only Lok Sabha constituency in the country which received three centrally funded Medical Colleges in recent years.In addition, there was a chain of important projects and Kedriaya Vidyalaya set up in and around this hilly region.