Government to provide up to 100,000 jobs in Kashmir: PM
By IANSThursday, February 24, 2011
NEW DELHI - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday said his government was working to provide 50,000-100,000 jobs to the youths of troubled Jammu and Kashmir. This, he added, would change their “mental makeup and mindset”.
“We will do everything to strengthen the hands of the state government to provide a fairer deal to the youths of Jammu and Kashmir and provide 50,000 to one lakh jobs to Kashmiris,” Manmohan Singh said, replying to the debate on the motion of thanks on the president’s address.
“It will change the mental makeup and mindset of youth of Kashmir,” the prime minister said.
He said the central government has formed a panel of experts, headed by former Reserve Bank of India governor C. Rangarajan, for a job plan in the employment-starved state. The panel will file its report soon, he said.
The state, Manmohan Singh stressed, had passed through a difficult time particularly last summer. “But since then, the situation has improved.”
This summer, he hoped, “we will be vigilant enough” to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
The prime minister said the government “will give no quarters to secessionists” in the state but asked political parties to “not disturb the peaceful atmosphere in Jammu and Kashmir”.
