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Leh: Prime Minister Narendra Modi at an event to mark the commencement of work on Zojila Tunnel, in Leh on Saturday. (PTI Photo/PIB)(PTI5_19_2018_000144B)[/caption]
Srinagar/Jammu/Leh, May 19 (IANS): On a day-long Jammu and Kashmir visit to inaugurate developmental projects, two days after the government announced an unconditional Ramadan ceasefire in the state, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday asked “misguided” Kashmiri youth to join “mainstream” India for a life with dignity.
Amid a separatist called shutdown and protest march and restrictions by authorities in Srinagar, Modi with a message of development and peace wrapped up in the evening his whirlwind trip that took him to all the three regions -- Ladakh, Kashmir Valley and Jammu. He inaugurated 330 megawatt Kishenganga power house in Kashmir and a 41.2-km long Ring Road project to decongest Srinagar city, He started work on the Zojila Tunnel to provide an all-weather link to Ladakh and reduce the distance to the cold desert region by three hours from Srinagar.
In Jammu, the Prime Minister laid the foundation stones of the Pakul Dul Power Project and the four-lane 58.2-kilometre-long Jammu Ring Road. He also inaugurated the Tarakote Marg and Material Ropeway of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board to facilitate pilgrims visiting the shrine.
In partially-curfewed Srinagar where schools and colleges were closed for the day, Modi addressed a gathering at Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC), advising those youth who have lost their path to return to the mainstream.
Invoking the composite culture of Kashmir, Modi said former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee always advocated and supported “Kashmiriyat” and “Modi is also the disciple of the same ‘Kashmiriyat’”.
He said development was the only solution to all problems of the state and hoped that “time will come soon when Jammu and Kashmir will re-emerge as the crown and coronet of peace and progress for the entire country”.
Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, who shared the dais with the Prime Minister, took a dig at Pakistan for not responding positively to India’s “goodwill gesture” of Ramadan ceasefire that was declared on Thursday.
She said the Prime Minister had the mandate and the stature to solve all the problems of the people in the state, recalling that remedies were in the agenda of alliance between the PDP and the BJP.
Earlier in Ladakh, Modi spoke at the closing ceremony of centenary birth celebrations of the Buddhist spiritual leader, Kashuk Bakula and asked those in Jammu and Kashmir regions to follow people of the cold desert region who have set an example in human endeavour in their urge for progress. In Jammu, Modi said urged agricultural scientists to revisit their strategies that must meet the growing challenges of climate change and paucity of water.
