New Delhi, October 3 (IANS): Flagging off the second semi-high speed indigenous Vande Bharat train from the national capital to Katra in Jammu and Kashmir, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday announced that Kashmir would be in the "list of most developed Indian states in the next decade and a beginning in that direction has already been made today by the Railways".
Shah said the hurdles in the development of Kashmir had been erased with the abrogation of Article 370 that gave the erstwhile state a special status. "With the scrapping of Article 370, Kashmir has become a part of India like the other states," he said.
The Minister said Article 370, which was scrapped on August 5, was not only a hurdle in country's unity and integrity, but also the biggest obstacle in the development of Jammu and Kashmir, which has now been bifurcated into two Union Territories -- Jammu and Kashmir with an Assembly and Ladakh without one.
"I have firm belief that we will gain success in complete eradication of terrorism and terrorist ideology from Kashmir after abrogation of Article 370. Our Kashmir would be mentioned in the list of most developed Indian states within 10 years," Shah said. The Minister said the Vande Bharat train, which has been manufactured at a Chennai-based factory, was a gift to the countrymen from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Vande Bharat Express will run between Delhi and Katra facilitating travel upto the Hindu shrine of Vaishno Devi. The booking for the train will start from Saturday.
High schools open in Kashmir, students missing
Srinagar, October 3 (IANS): Students preferred to stay away from schools even as the Jammu and Kashmir administration announced the opening of all the higher secondary schools across the Kashmir Valley after a gap of two months since the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5.
On Thursday Divisional commissioner Kashmir Baseer Ahmad Khan directed all the Deputy Commissioners of Kashmir and officials of the Education Department to open the higher secondary schools. IANS visited prominent government higher secondary schools of Srinagar like SP Higher Secondary School, Boys Higher Secondary School Jawahar Nagar and Girls Higher Secondary School Rajbagh. Only staff members were present but there were no students in any of these schools.
When the state administration opened other schools last month the outcome was similar. The move drew an extremely poor response. Only the staff members showed up in the schools as most students stayed away.
