Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri Amit Shah launched e-bus service in Jammu and distributed more than one thousand appointment letters for Jammu & Kashmir Combined Examination-2024 and compassionate appointment through video conferencing from New Delhi today.

In his address, Shri Amit Shah said that today's program is important in many ways because 100 fully air-conditioned e-buses have been dedicated to the people of Jammu. He said that this project has started with the operation and maintenance of these buses for 12 years at a cost of Rs 561 crore. Shri Shah said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, India has spread environmental awareness throughout the world and best steps in this direction have been taken in India. He said that the Modi government has implemented schemes for e-buses in the entire country and under the same measure, Jammu is getting 100 e-buses today. Of these, 25 buses are 12 meters long and 75 buses are 9 meters long. Shri Shah added that a reliable, comfortable, economical and durable public transport facility for the people of Jammu has started from today. He said that these buses will also ply from Jammu to Katra, Kathua, Udhampur and on the internal routes of Jammu. These buses will not only remove the commuting problems of the people in the coming days, but will also be very useful from the environmental point of view.

Union Home Minister said that today 209 successful candidates of Jammu and Kashmir Combined Examination-2024 batch have also received their appointment letters. These include 96 officers of the Jammu & Kashmir Administrative Service, 63 officers of Account Gazette Service and 50 officers of Police Service. He said that from today a new beginning is being made in the lives of these officers and the thinking of these officers at this point of time will help in paving the way for their entire life. Shri Shah said that due to the transparent system under Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi's regime, these officers have got these jobs on the basis of merit. He said that during Modi ji's tenure, jobs are provided not on the basis of recommendation slip but on the basis of examination papers. He said that earlier it was impossible to get a job without political recommendation or corruption. Shri Shah said that now Jammu and Kashmir is going through a phase of change and instead of terrorism, bomb blasts, firing, stone pelting and strikes, now studies, schools, colleges, various institutions, industries and infrastructure are being seen here.

Shri Amit Shah said that today 885 people have also received appointment letters under compassionate appointment. He said that after the abrogation of Article 370 and 35A since August 2019, 34,440 vacancies have been filledout of which 24,000 have been filled by Jammu & Kashmir Service Selection Board, 3900 by Jammu & Kashmir Public Service Commission, 2637 by Jammu & Kashmir Police and 2436 by Jammu & Kashmir Bank. Shri Shah said that no scope for corruption has been left to filling these appointments.

Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation said that today is the National Voters Day. He said that our country functions in a democratic system and its smallest unit is the voter of the country. TheHomeMinisterexhorted all youth above 18 years of age to register their names in the electoral rolls, become part of the democratic process and strengthen democracy in India and Jammu & Kashmir. Shri Shah said that after Shri Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister, Panchayat elections were held in Jammu & Kashmir in 2018 in which 74% voting took place, Block Development Council elections were held in October 2019 in which 98% voting was recorded and 3650 Sarpanches were elected in 4483 constituencies. In this way, the Modi government has given an opportunity to 35,000 Panches, Sarpanches and public representatives of local bodies to work in a democracy. He said that now fresh delimitation is taking place here in which reservation arrangements are being made, so that the deprived people will be able to get their rights.

Shri Amit Shah said that due to the efforts of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, a new era of peace and security has started in Jammu & Kashmir. He said that after the abrogation of Article 370, there has been a 70% decline in total terrorism-related incidents, an 81% reduction in civilian deaths, and a 48% decline in the death of security forces, this shows that a new era of happiness and peace has begun in Jammu & Kashmir. Shri Shah said that there were 2654 incidents of organized stone pelting in 2010, which were reduced to Zero in 2023, there were 132 incidents of organized strikes in 2010, while not a single incident took place in 2023. He said that similarly in 2010, 112 civilians died in stone pelting, in 2023 not a single civilian died and in 2010 the number of civilians injured in stone pelting was 6235, which is Zero today. Shri Shah added that the Modi government is strictly cracking down on terror financing, sealing and freezing assets of terrorists, and has also outlawed several terrorist organizations to crack down on them.

Union Home Minister said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi and Lt. Governor Shri Manoj Sinha a new era of peace and security has begun in Jammu & Kashmir. He said that investment of Rs 297 crore came to J&K in 2019-20, which increased to Rs 2153 crore in 2022-23. Along with this, an investment of Rs 6000 crore is in the pipeline. Shri Shah said that GSDP was Rs One lakh crore in 2014-15, which increased more than 2 times to Rs 2,27,927 crore in 2022-23. Earlier, there were 94 colleges in Jammu & Kashmir, today there are 147, earlier there were no IIM, IIT, and AIIMS, today IIM, IIT, and two AIIMS have been established. Similarly, there were 4 medical colleges, now 7 new medical colleges have been established. There was not even a single nursing college, today there are 15 nursing colleges, medical seats were 500, now they have increased to 1300, PG seats were 367, now 300 more seats have been added and 3000 nursing seats have also been increased.

Shri Amit Shah said that 173 projects have been completed here under the Smart City Mission and homes to 1,45,000 people have been allocated within a very short period from 2019 to 2024. He said that the work of providing tap water to the houses of 13 lakh people has been done and along with this, the entire health expenses of up to Rs 5 lakh of 82 lakh people are being borne by the Government of India and the Government of Jammu & Kashmir. Shri Shah said that earlier only 60 services were online in Jammu & Kashmir, which has now increased to 1102, due to which corruption has been curbed. Earlier the number of players in Jammu & Kashmir was less than 2 lakhs, which has now increased to more than 60 lakhs. Shri Shah added that in the coming days, under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Ji, Jammu & Kashmir will continue to move ahead on the path of development at the same pace because now the youth here are taking computers in their hands instead of stones and are connecting with the development of the country and Jammu & Kashmir.

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RK/ ASH/AKS/ PR/ AK