New Delhi, Dec 14 (IANS): The government on Tuesday said that the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir has improved significantly post revocation of Article 370 in August 2019.
"The security situation in Jammu and Kashmir has improved significantly since August 2019 and there has been a significant decline in terrorist incidents," said Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.
He said that the security grid has been further strengthened in J&K, and infiltration of terrorists from across the border has also come down significantly.
According to the data presented by the government, there has been a drop of 15 per cent in the terrorist incidents this year, compared to the previous year. As many as 244 terror related incidents were reported during the year 2020 which came down to 206 in the current year till December 5. The data did not include Monday's dastardly terror attack on a bus belonging to the 9th battalion of the Jammu and Kashmir armed police, claiming lives of two policemen and wounding 12 others.
According to the government, the estimated net infiltration of the terrorists have also dropped significantly by 45 per cent. In 2020, 51 terrorists infiltrated into the India, the number dropped to 28 this year.
The Minister said that the government has taken several steps to boost development of Jammu & Kashmir. Sharing the details of the developmental initiatives by the Centre, Rai said the progress of projects being implemented in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir under the Prime Minister's Development Package-2015 has been accelerated. A total of 53 projects pertaining to 15 ministries are being implemented at a cost of Rs 58,477 crore in various sectors such as Roads, Power, Health, Education, Tourism, Agriculture, Skill Development etc, out of which 21 projects have been completed or substantially completed and the remaining 32 projects are at advanced stage of progress.
"Work is under progress on All India Institute of Medical Sciences each in Jammu and Kashmir Divisions at the cost of Rs 2000 crore each besides 7 other medical colleges in the UT of J&K. Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Jammu and Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Jammu have been made functional," the Minister noted.
He said during the current financial year, 1,37,870 people have been covered under various self-employment schemes of different government departments.