Now for realising PDP’s Greater Srinagar promise

On December 3 last year, in the run-up to    Assembly election in Srinagar’s eight constituencies, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed asked the city’s residents to join the movement of change and vote for his party’s candidates.
For the first time in recent decades, Srinagar's flood-weary residents voted out the candidates of the incumbent National Conference from five out of eight constituencies and elected the PDP candidates as their representatives.
Now, with the PDP-BJP coalition government in place and Sayeed at the helm of the state’s affairs, PDP has a debt to pay to Srinagar’s voters. It has already incorporated Srinagar, along with Jammu city, in its common minimum programme and promised to transform it into a mega city — dubbed with grandeur as Greater Srinagar.
Srinagar — the economic and political epicentre of Kashmir valley —  was partly ruined by the devastating flood in September last year and the foremost challenge before the new government in its path to rebuild the city as Greater Srinagar will be a time-bound and rapid reconstruction of the city’s businesses and residential infrastructure.
In his December 3 election rally, Sayeed had credited his party with launching several developmental projects during its first tenure in the government. He had also blamed the National Conference for the “systematic neglect” of the city and vowed to clean up the “urban chaos”. Mufti’s election promise for Srinagar had envisaged it to be a “smart city” with planned infrastructure and an assurance of “financial and social security” for its residents. However, with the amount of chaos and ill-planning involved in the city’s rapid expansion, it will be a monumental task for the new government to bring order to this mess.
The challenges before the new government are more complex, than simplistic, and need huge monetary investment. According to the stakeholders in local commerce, it will take years, possibly several decades, to rebuild Srinagar in its old avatar, which existed prior to the September floods. The road network in Srinagar also needs an upgrade and an overhaul to meet the requirements of growing traffic. The Dal Lake, which is an important tourist destination in the city, also needs proper planning, oversight and finances from the state government to conserve it from decay.

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PDP-BJP Common Minimum Programme

PROACTIVE SMART GOVERNMENT
Transforming the state government into a smart government which will be proactive, transparent and accountable; it will be reformed and redesigned to be an enabler for business and a strategic partner for long-term private sector growth.

HONEST, ETHICAL GOVERNMENT
To be the most ethical state in the country from the present-day position of being the most corrupt. A system to
be introduced with national support and international expertise to provide honest, effective, inclusive
governance and service delivery.

INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY BUILDING
Envisages institutional capacity building and people-public private partnership to enable the state to seek national and international financing for its developmental plan and
projects for foreign investment in sectors like power,
infrastructure and education.

NEW ECONOMIC POLICY
Aligning overall economic policy to use the resources and skills of the state and partnering with private businesses and enterprise to achieve high economic growth. Both the PDP and BJP need to improve civic amenities, especially in Jammu and Srinagar cities, and to ensure access to primary
education in all villages and creating more institutions for vocational and higher studies at district headquarters.

DECENTRALISATION OF POWER
Decentralisation of decision-making is in practice devolved to three-tier panchayats, municipalities and corporations. The third tier of government will be empowered.

GENUINE AUTONOMY
PDP-BJP governance document says the new government will ensure genuine autonomy of institutions of probity.