J&K gets Institute of Mass Communication

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*Political aspect of J&K needs focus along with development: Omar

*CM favours restorations of external, internal dialogue

*Dr. Farooq urges journalists to play a role in peace process

Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Ms Abmika Soni on Tuesday announced a branch of Indian Institute of Mass Communication for Jammu and Kashmir State and added that it would open new vistas of jobs for the youth of the state.

Giving resume of the activities of her ministry with special reference to Jammu and Kashmir State, the IB Minister said that new high and low power transmitters are being installed in the State in border and hilly areas to expand the orbit of coverage by the AIR and Doordarshan.

She said Rs. 100 crore has been earmarked for the purpose in the current year and the possibilities are being explored to open up private FM channels to broadband the broadcasting in the State covering uncovered and far-off areas, she added.

Ms. Ambika Soni said that the Information Ministry during the current year has provided DAVP adds worth Rs. 2.30 crore to the newspapers in Jammu and Kashmir. “IB Ministry is keen to help regional, small and medium newspapers throughout the country including Jammu and Kashmir”, she said and added that advertisement policy will be more rationalized.

The IB Minister also said that the functioning of DD Kasheer as an entertainment and culture and heritage promotion channel will be reviewed and the channel improved and upgraded to meet the expectations of the people.

Ms. Ambika Soni lauded the bravery of Ms. Ruksana and asked the journalists to report such brave acts prominently to help develop brave young men and women across the country.

She also complemented the Chief Minister (CM), Omar Abdullah for his dynamic and young leadership adding that the impact of development and progress is visible on the ground here.

She was speaking at the inaugural function of three-day All India Editors’ Conference organized by the Press Information Bureau (PIB) in association with the State Department of Information and Public Relations at SKICC Srinagar.

The Principal Director General of PIB, Ms Neelam Kapur in her welcome address expressed the gratitude to the State Government for providing all facilities to her Department to organize the event.

Among others the function was attended by the Union Minister of State for Minority Affairs, Salman Khurshid, Deputy Chief Minister, Tara Chand, Members of State Council of Ministers, Political Advisor to Chief Minister, legislators, journalists, officers of the State Administration including Chief Secretary, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, and Heads of various departments.

Speaking on the occasion the Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy, Dr. Farooq Abdullah urged the journalist fraternity to play their positive role in the endeavours of the government aimed at peace and development of Jammu and Kashmir. He said sometimes exaggeration of events create problems and make the situations complex. “You should report the facts truly and cautiously”, he advised the journalists.

Dr. Farooq underscored the need for upgrading the radio and television transmitters especially in rural and border areas so that the people could watch and listen the programmes telecast and broadcast by Doordarshan and All India Radio. He also asked for reviewing the functioning of ‘Kasheer Channel’ and called for making it more useful and meaningful medium of entertainment and positive change.

Dr. Abdullah said that his Ministry was keen to help Jammu and Kashmir in harnessing solar, wind and hydel energy so that a new chapter of new and renewable energy is written in the State. He asked the State government to push forward the projects in this sector and take the best advantage of the schemes extended to Jammu and Kashmir by this Ministry.

Underscoring the importance of resuming Indo-Pak and Centre-State twin dialogue channels, Chief Minister, Mr. Omar Abdullah Tuesday said that internal and external engagements for discussing Jammu and Kashmir centric political issues are imperative to achieve the goal of peace and progress in the State. “We cannot divorce the political aspect of the State while concentrating on social and infrastructural development”, he said and added that the process of development in Jammu and Kashmir is directly related to the security and political stability.

The Chief Minister said that his government was silently working to facilitate the internal and external dialogue process which got hampered by 11/26 Mumbai incident. He said that Pakistan should recognize the Indian concerns and act in positive direction so that composite dialogue takes off without further delay. Mr. Omar that said the people in Jammu and Kashmir are politically astute and want the dialogue process move forward so that permanent peace is restored.

“While we are highly thankful to the Central leadership for the unprecedented and liberal financial support to reconstruct our social and economic infrastructure, the political issues equally require focusing both internally and externally”, Mr. Omar said and added that all voices should be heard, all opinions taken into account and every concern noted down to take the right and best decision for finding out solution to the problems relating to Jammu and Kashmir.

The Chief Minister said that the forward movement of dialogue process both internally and externally is need of the hour and discussing the political issues across the table involving all sections of the political opinions is very much required for the peace and overall development of the State.

Mr. Omar said that the Assembly Election 2008 were a watershed in the political scenario of Jammu and Kashmir. “The election reflected the significant change in the people’s thinking”, he said adding that no analyst or political pandit had expected such a huge turnout in the Assembly Elections. “The people came out in large numbers to vote, not for a particular political group or party, but to exhibit their resolve for development, peace and democracy”, he asserted.

Mr. Omar said that as the Chief Minister of the coalition government that emerged out of the 2008 elections, he has focused on five basic sectors of Bijlee, Pani, Sadak, Sehat aur Taleem (Power, Water, Road, Health and Education). He expressed gratitude to the UPA Government for granting highest ever Annual Plan of Rs. 5500 crore and Rs. 1200 crore under Prime Minister’s Reconstruction Plan (PMRP) to the State adding that the Centre Government has gone ahead of the call of duty by providing such a huge budget to Jammu and Kashmir and also sanctioning two Central Universities for the two divisions. “Onus is on the State Administration and executing agencies to spend the funds meaningfully to achieve the goals of faster development and progress of all areas equitably”, he added.

The Chief Minister said that the development of power sector has been flagged as crucial sector for the development and efforts are afoot to double the generation of electricity indigenously in next six years. He lauded the efforts of Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy, Dr. Farooq Abdullah who took the bold decision of establishing Baglihar Power Project, the first State owned hydel scheme, enabling the State to generate 450 MWs indigenously adding that Jammu and Kashmir earns Rs. 2 crore per day from the project. “Stage is set to launch the second phase of the Baglihar with the similar capacity by the end of this fiscal”, he said and expressed hope that with the help of Centre Government the Phase-II of Baglihar Hydel Project would be completed by 2014 to generate another 450 MWs of power. Mr. Omar also referred to the establishing of international standard golf course opposite SKICC and the first Phase of Gandola project by Dr. Farooq Abdullah. He said all these decisions were of significant importance for Jammu and Kashmir. “The launch of all the three projects received severe criticism during those days but presently these have become the selling points of Jammu and Kashmir.

Referring to the disturbance and militancy, State witnessed since 1989-90, the Chief Minister said that nobody believed at that time that this will be such a long phase of 20 years. “Though significant improvement has been achieved in restoring the peace and law and order, yet we are occasionally battling attempts of infiltration and threats”, he said and asked the journalist fraternity to report such incidents in the right perspective without creating any hype as it badly tells upon our tourism and gives opportunity to unscrupulous tour operators to divert the tourists from Jammu and Kashmir. “I do not want you to hide the facts but expect from you to report truly without any exaggeration”, he said and added that after every bad incident, five good events happen in the State. “I want you to report these also prominently earmarking some inches in news print and some airtime on telecast”.

The Chief Minister said that the improvement in security scenario is continuous and year after year we are marching towards the total peace. “The violence incidents in the year 2008 upto September end were 708 while as only 395 such incidents took place in 2009 upto September end”, he said and added that the graph of improvement level is going up. He said good news about Jammu and Kashmir should not be a seldom news and media has to play its role to showcase the real picture of Jammu and Kashmir outside the State and clear the doubts in the minds of visitors about travelling Jammu and Kashmir.

Mr. Omar said that despite disturbances in the Valley during May-June which is the peak tourist season of Kashmir, the number of tourists visiting here were of the order of 4.07 lakh. “This is an encouraging trend and presently the flow of tourists here to enjoy the unique autumn charm is also upto the mark”. He asked the visiting editors from various parts of the country to move out of the SKICC and witness the glory of the natural beauty of Kashmir. He suggested them to visit Pahalgam, Gulmarg and other tourist places besides touring the countryside and interacting with the people. “This will give you an opportunity to know about actual Kashmir”, he said and asked the visiting journalists and editors to stay for more days and see the beauty of Chinars turning red. “We describe it ‘Aatish-e-Chinar’ (Flames of the Chinar) and my grandfather christened his biography by this name”, he said.

Mr. Omar said that Jammu and Kashmir is the birth place of tourism and Kashmir has been the ‘Heaven On Earth’ many many years before the Kerala was named as ‘God’s Own Land’. He asked the journalists to write about the natural beauty of this beautiful land and showcase it for the national and international tourism.