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Kashmir’s Pulwama grabs top slot in good governance index
Pulwama DC Baseer ul Haq Choudhary said they were able to work on different sectors owing to the improvement in law and order after 2019 (when the state’s special status was revoked on August 5, 2019, and the region was put under a lockdown)
Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district has grabbed the top slot in district good governance index (DGGI) 2021-22 in the union territory, officials said on Saturday.
The district, which has remained in news for the deadly attack on a CRPF convoy wherein 40 paramilitary men were killed in 2019 or for being home district of militant commanders like Burhan Wani and Zakir Musa, has beaten 19 other districts to get an aggregate composite score of 5.926 (out of 7.000).
Last year, the district had appeared at fourth spot while topping in good governance in Kashmir valley.
“Good Governance Parameters: Pulwama again best performing district in J&K, UT. Last year, Pulwama topped in the Kashmir Division. Our commitment towards the goal of Good Governance is unflinching!,” said the office of deputy commissioner (DC), Pulwama, in a tweet.
Pulwama DC Baseer ul Haq Choudhary said they have improved a lot from last year.
“The latest findings were released by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Friday evening. We have performed well in all the major parameters to emerge as topper,” he said.
The DGGI is a framework document measuring performance under 10 sectors having 58 indicators. The sectors under which the performance of the 20 districts is measured include agriculture and allied sectors, industries and allied sectors, human resource development, public health, public infrastructure and utilities, social welfare and development, financial inclusion, judiciary and public safety, environment and citizen-centric governance.
South Kashmir, including Pulwama, had remained as one of the most volatile regions in the Valley since the beginning of a drawn-out unrest since July 2016 — when local militant leader Burhan Wani was killed by security forces. As the coming years recorded a spike in local young men joining the militancy, the region again plunged into chaos when a local suicide bomber rammed his explosive laden vehicle into a CRPF convoy at Lethpora. The attack had even brought India and Pakistan on the brink of war.
DC Choudhary said they were able to work on different sectors owing to the improvement in law and order after 2019 (when the state’s special status was revoked on August 5, 2019, and the region was put under a lockdown).
“Things have changed now. People have realised that peace leads to development. The sense of insecurity which was there earlier has now changed. Post-2019, there is a clarity that those who are guilty won’t be spared and those who are innocent can’t be touched,” he said.
Though law and order incidents such as protests and stone pelting have come down drastically, cases of gunfights between militants and security forces and attacks by militants keep on happening every now and then in the district, but their intensity has reduced.
While Pulwama has grabbed the first rank, Jammu division’s Samba (5.775) and Doda (5.621) have secured second and third slots.
The first-ever DGGI of 2020-21 was released by home minister Amit Shah in January in which Jammu district had managed to top the list.
