Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh today held a luncheon meeting for DDC chairpersons, Vice Chairpersons and members from Jammu & Kashmir.

About 50 District Development Council members, Chairpersons and vice chairpersons called on Dr Jitendra Singh at his residence after completing their 5-day Exposure tour to Pune and Mumbai to study local self-government. The Minister carefully listened to their hands-on training experiences and said that Maharashtra State has one of the oldest and most successful local self-rule structures in the country.

Later, talking to the media, Dr Jitendra Singh said, it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who gave Jammu and Kashmir the real "self-rule' by ensuring successful conduct of regularPanchayat elections and the first-ever District Development Council (DDC) polls in seven decades in November 2020. He said, Jammu & Kashmir was often known for slogans of "self-rule", but the real self-rule has dawned only now and it needs to be further strengthened.

Dr Jitendra Singh also pointed out that DDC training programmes are continuously being held in Delhi and exposure tours are being organized to get them familiarized with the functioning of PRI bodies and Committees in various states. He said, recently, Indian Institute of Public Administration conducted such a programme in coordination with Delhi Municipal Corporation.

Dr Jitendra Singh said, Prime Minister Modi gave highest priority to Jammu & Kashmir and the most remarkable feature of the last eight years of his rule is that he not only gave J&K several important national level projects but through personal intervention also revived many such projects which got delayed for various reasons.

DDC Chairman Bharat Bhushan, DDC Chairman Udhampur Lal Chand, DDC Chairman Doda Dhanaiter Singh, DDC Chairman Reasi Sarv Singh Naag, DDC Advocate Amit Sharma,Vice Chairperson Udhampur Juhi Manhas, Karan Singh Atri, DDC members Manohar Lal. Sandeep Manhas,Kewal Krishna,Balwan Singh, Romesh chander,Rakesh Bodhi Subhash Bhagat,Suraj Singh, were among those who attended the luncheon meeting.

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