Jammu and Kashmir is witnessing a familiar paradox. On one side, there are announcements of new schools, hospitals, trains, electric buses, investment, cultural initiatives and development programmes. On the other, ordinary people continue to confront rising costs, unemployment, questions of accountability, fragile infrastructure and a growing sense that many important decisions are taken without sufficiently listening to those who will bear their consequences.
The real challenge before Jammu and Kashmir is therefore not a shortage of plans. It is the gap between announcement and implementation, between governance and accountability.
The decision to upgrade 714 High Schools into K-12 composite schools is undoubtedly significant. The nearly 16 per cent rise in admissions to Government Degree Colleges is equally encouraging. But these achievements should not become reasons for complacency. Increasing enrolment is only the first step. The government must ask a harder question: what happens to these young people after they leave the classroom?
Jammu and Kashmir cannot afford an education system that produces degrees without opportunities. Education policy must be linked with skills, entrepreneurship, research and employment. Otherwise, the educated unemployed will continue to grow, and with them the frustration of an ambitious young generation.
Healthcare presents a similar test. The promise of taking advanced medical facilities to smaller districts and remote areas is welcome. But the success of healthcare reform will ultimately be judged not at a summit in Srinagar, but in a remote village where a patient needs a specialist and cannot afford repeated journeys to the cities.
Connectivity, too, is moving ahead. The resumption of the Budgam-Katra train service and the proposed third Vande Bharat service are important developments. Rail connectivity can transform tourism, trade and mobility. But infrastructure must produce economic benefits for local communities, not merely improve statistics.
This brings us to the proposed relocation of the Civil Secretariat and other government offices from Srinagar.
For the administration, relocation may have administrative logic. For hundreds of traders, transporters, small restaurants and service providers whose livelihoods depend upon the daily movement of government employees and visitors, however, it could have serious consequences.
The government must listen before it decides.
Economic impact assessments should not be treated as an afterthought. A policy that is administratively convenient but economically damaging to ordinary citizens cannot be called people-centric governance.
The electricity tariff hike is an even more immediate concern.
An average increase of 6.83 per cent from September 1 has triggered protests from opposition parties. The government has its financial arguments, and the regulatory authority has its own calculations. But the consumer sees the issue differently: another increase in the monthly household bill at a time when the cost of living is already under pressure.
The government must therefore explain the economics of the decision in language ordinary consumers can understand. How much is the actual revenue gap? How much will the government subsidise? What relief will be available to poorer households? And what measures are being taken to improve efficiency and reduce losses?
People deserve answers—not political slogans from either side.
The forthcoming Assembly session beginning September 21 offers an opportunity to provide those answers. More than 300 questions have reportedly already been submitted. Legislators should use the session to scrutinise the government, not simply to trade accusations. The Assembly must become a place where public grievances are converted into policy responses.
But while political arguments continue, one issue should rise above politics: the alleged rape and death of a 15-year-old tribal girl in Kishtwar.
The arrests made so far and the demand for an independent Crime Branch investigation demonstrate the seriousness of the case. Every allegation must be investigated without fear or favour. The victim and her family deserve justice, and society deserves confidence that no individual—however influential—can escape accountability.
This case cannot be allowed to become another political headline that disappears after a few days.
Justice delayed in such circumstances is not merely a legal failure; it becomes a failure of public trust.
There is another crisis that requires equal seriousness—the crisis of Kashmir’s ecology.
The warning that unchecked construction, mountain cutting, wetland encroachment and interference with natural waterways could have devastating consequences must not be dismissed as environmental rhetoric. The Himalayan region is ecologically fragile. The tragic floods in Nepal should serve as a warning to every government and every citizen living in a vulnerable mountain ecosystem.
We cannot destroy drainage channels and wetlands in the name of development and then blame nature when disaster arrives.
Kashmir needs roads, buildings, tourism infrastructure and urban expansion—but it needs them intelligently. Nature is not an obstacle to development; it is the foundation on which sustainable development rests.
There are, thankfully, developments that inspire optimism.
Jammu and Kashmir’s first International Film Festival, scheduled from September 7 to 10, offers an opportunity to project the region through culture rather than conflict. Films from 41 countries, an international jury, masterclasses and innovative initiatives such as a floating screen on Dal Lake can give Kashmir a different kind of global visibility.
The agreement between the Indian Council for Cultural Relations and the J&K Government can further strengthen this effort by taking Kashmir’s art, music, cuisine and handicrafts to international audiences.
This is soft power in its most meaningful form.
Kashmir should not merely be presented to the world. Kashmiris should be given platforms to present themselves.
The achievements of young Kashmiris such as public policy scholar Arhan Bagati, now associated with Harvard University’s Center for International Development, demonstrate what is possible when talent gets opportunity. Similarly, academic initiatives at NIT Srinagar and the University of Kashmir show that our young people are ready to engage with global questions—from Artificial Intelligence to anthropology and public policy.
The responsibility of institutions is to nurture that talent rather than allow it to leave permanently in search of opportunities elsewhere.
Politics, meanwhile, remains unsettled.
The public disagreements involving Aga Ruhullah Mehdi and the National Conference leadership over accountability, Article 370, 35A and statehood reflect questions that cannot simply be wished away. Political parties have every right to evolve, but voters also have the right to ask why positions have changed and what exactly they are being asked to support today.
Similarly, the ongoing uncertainty over Congress joining the Council of Ministers should be resolved through dialogue and clarity. Coalition politics is not inherently problematic. What matters is whether political arrangements ultimately improve governance.
The people of Jammu and Kashmir have heard enough of political calculations. They want functioning institutions.
They want schools where children learn, hospitals where patients receive timely treatment, electricity that remains affordable, roads and railways that create opportunities, policing that inspires confidence and an administration that listens.
They want accountability when something goes wrong.
And above all, they want a future in which their children do not have to leave Kashmir simply to find a future.
The coming months will test the Omar Abdullah administration in a very real way. The government has the opportunity to move beyond inherited problems and establish a culture of transparent, responsive governance.
But that requires more than inaugurations, press releases and political rebuttals.
Governance must be measured by outcomes.
A new school is meaningful only when children stay in it.
A hospital is meaningful only when a patient can afford its care.
A railway is meaningful only when it creates mobility and opportunity.
A development project is meaningful only when it improves people’s lives.
And a government is meaningful only when people believe it is accountable to them.
Jammu and Kashmir does not need more promises.
It needs delivery. It needs transparency. And above all, it needs governance that the ordinary citizen can actually feel.@highlightOmar AbdullahShereen NamanMushtaq BalaShakeel RehmanFollowingFiaz FaziliSantosh BakayaRizwan RumiBhat Biotech HilalRiyaz BedarGhulam Qadir AllaqabandZahid G MuhammadDr-Abdul AhadEr Manzoor NawchooAyaz Rasool NazkiSyed Shakeel QalanderShakeel Ul Rehman
