In a First, 36 Central Ministers on J&K Trip from Today; Modi Asks Them to Travel Beyond Urban Areas

New Delhi: In a first, 36 central ministers will visit Jammu and Kashmir starting Saturday as a part of a massive outreach programme. The move comes six months after the Centre scrapped the special status to Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated the state.

Ahead of the visit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting of the Council of Ministers, where he asked the leaders to spread the message of development during their interaction with locals. They were also asked to spread the message about the various central schemes that will benefit the grassroots, news agency PTI quoted sources as saying.

Modi said the ministers should not restrict themselves to urban areas but also meet people in villages to inform them about the developmental work carried out by the central government in Jammu and Kashmir.

The ministers will visit different districts in both divisions of the Union Territory from January 18-24 and the home ministry is coordinating it.