A girl cheers up amidst the gathered crowd at the public rally addressed by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh at Kishtwar A A girl cheers up amidst the gathered crowd at the public rally addressed by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh at Kishtwar on Saturday after inaugurating the hydel project. A Tribune photo Kishtwar, April 26 With militancy on the wane in this hinterhand district, the people of Kishtwar are pinning hope for a promising future on power projects being set up in the Chenab basin. Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh's announcement that the vast hydo-electricity potential of Jammu and Kashmir needs to be exploited to bring in a socio-economic revolution in these underdeveloped areas of the state is a welcome news for them. Addressing a gathering of several thousand people at this township today, the Prime Minister said that the state had a hydro-electric potential for 14,000 MW, but only 1,865 MW had been tapped so far. "Tapping the remaining 90 per cent potential would bring in a significant socio-economic change," he said. He was here to commission the 390 MW Dul Hasti hydro-electric project, constructed by the National Hydro-Electric Power Corporation on the Chenab. This is the first visit of a prime minister to Kishtwar since Indira Gandhi had laid the project's foundation stone 25 years ago. Though elections in the state are around the corner, the Prime Minister's focus during his address was on power generation and its consequent impact on the region rather than on politics or on projection of the Congress. He was accompanied by the J&K Governor, Lt-Gen S K Sinha (retd), Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and other leaders, including Sushil Kumar Schinde, Saif-ud-din Soz, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed and Member of Parliament Lal Singh. Complementing the locals for their resilience during the tough times, he said the government had formed working groups comprising representatives from all parties, groups and factions with the sole aim to work towards the state's development and progress. Consequent to the working groups' suggestion, a special task force headed by former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Rangarajan was set up, which has delved upon several issues. These include exploitation of natural resources, focus on development of roads and electricity, strengthening the social structure and health services, encouragement of private investment and availability of funds. Asserting that the Centre wants to end the power shortage in the state, the Prime Minister said a lot still needed to be done by Jammu and Kashmir to improve power generation and distribution. "Without improving the distribution system, there cannot be an increase in the power generation capacity," he said. In his address, the chief minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad said that Dul Hasti project, which was envisioned to be completed within four or five years took about 25 years to be commisssioned because of the ups and downs in the internal situation of the state. Power projects in this area would provide much needed sucuur to the people of this region, who are badly affected by unemployment and lack of economic development. Claiming out that militancy in this region had come down by about 90 per cent, Shahid Rashid, a local contractor who was present at the PM's rally, said he expected the projects would see the light of the day as things had greatly improved over the past couple of years. Surinder Parihar, a former power company employee, however, was cautious. "It is not necessary that the announcements made would be implemented. It could well be a political gimmick in view of the elections.' Gulzar Ahmed, a government servant, said that there was a lot of unemployment in the region, which was a major issue with the locals and he hoped that announcements made would generate opportunities for the local youth. Echoing his views, Jai Krishan Sharma, a retired teacher, said that there iwas no longer any tension among the locals. They move about freely and go about their normal day-to-day business, he added.