‘UPA-II gifted JK projects to Modi for inauguration’
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Monday said his big complaint with the UPA-II is that it had completed several projects in Jammu and Kashmir but the then Premier Manmohan Singh could not find time to inaugurate and handed these as gift to Narendra Modi.
Omar’s remarks come a day before Prime Minister Modi’s scheduled inauguration of 44 MW Chutak hydro-electric project in Kargil district and the 45 MW Nimoo Bazgo project in Leh.
“It will be my very big complaint with UPA-II that all these (development) projects were completed during its tenure but were handed over as gift to (Modi) for inauguration,” Omar told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.
He said it was sad the projects which were started and completed during the UPA government were not inaugurated by the then Prime Minister. “He could not find time to inaugurate these projects. Katra rail link was completed more than a year ago, we have been using electricity of Uri II power project for more than a year now and Nimo-Bazgo and Chutak projects were completed a year ago. It has been more than six months we got permission for Srinagar-Leh transmission,” Omar said.
“I will never be able to understand why they were so careless about the completed projects and did not inaugurate these,” Omar said. During his day-long visit to Jammu and Kashmir tomorrow, the Prime Minister will also lay the foundation stone for the first power transmission line from Leh to Kargil and Kargil to Srinagar.
Omar said his regret was that Manmohan Singh took personal interest in these projects and ensured their funding and completion under the Prime Minister’s Reconstruction Plan for the state but his name is not going to be associated with inauguration of these projects. “If he had inaugurated these projects, I would have been happier,” he said.