Need to change mindset tending ‘outsider-phobia’ in J&K: LG Sinha

Jammu, Mar 25: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, on Wednesday, emphasised the need to change the mindset which nurtured misgivings or phobia in Jammu and Kashmir that the “outsiders” would come and take away everything.

Outsiders would invest and provide employment, and could not take away anything, he asserted.

“Generally speaking, there has not been a culture of private investment in Jammu and Kashmir. Therefore, a glance from independence to 2022-23 would make one clear that Jammu and Kashmir could attract only Rs 14,000 Cr private investment during this period. No region can progress or develop without industrial growth. People here had a mindset tending emotions against “outsider(s)” and created misgivings that an outsider would come and would take away everything,” LG Sinha stated, while addressing the gathering in the inaugural ceremony of a unit of Indian Society for Training and Development (ISTD) in Jammu.

“So, what if an outsider comes here…, what will he do? He will come and will not take away much from here. In fact, he will invest his own money here and provide employment to the local people. Though it will be better if the local people set up industries. But even if a person (industrialist) comes from Goa or any other place, he will not take away everything from here. He cannot. Need is to come out of this mindset. If we have to come at par with other states of the country in this direction, we’ll have to reorient our thinking,” the Lieutenant Governor emphasised.

He pointed out that the Prime Minister approved a new industrial scheme for J&K.

“Today, I need to assert here that incentives provided in the scheme (for J&K), approved by the PM at our request, were not available in any other state of the country. The benefit of this scheme was that many new industrial units were set up in J&K, particularly in the Jammu region – in Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts. Broadly speaking, an investment of Rs 35000-40000 Cr has been realised on the ground in J&K,” LG Sinha stated.

He maintained that the investment generated employment. “There is still a lot of potential here on this account. In the case of startup culture, at present there are 1316 registered startups here and the heartening aspect is that 472 of them are being led by our daughters. One can see that the entire industrial ecosystem is undergoing a change. Therefore, keeping in view the shifts underway across the country and globe, Jammu Kashmir’s industrial landscape must continually invest in new skills to enhance productivity,” the Lieutenant Governor remarked.

Special attention would have to be given on increasing productivity and problem-solving skills of youth, he said. In this connection, he particularly mentioned a BPO inaugurated by him two and a half years ago in a far-off village of Kathua district.

“That BPO is working better than any BPO in Noida or Delhi and over 400 youth are working there,” he said.

Referring to the significance of training skill development in the education sector, he stated that the New Education Policy had created some problems for teachers also.

“Though none speaks about it yet I will have to. I’ll have to make a special request to the teachers that they will have to shoulder this big responsibility of undergoing special training to remain updated. I believe that ISTD will play a crucial role in strengthening the learning and development ecosystem and it will position Jammu as a regional hub for training and professional development,” he said.