Srinagar, Oct 17(IVNN):Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad today highlighted the need to project development news by media in a greater measure, saying even small negative developments receive the highest coverage giving an impression as if nothing was going right in the country.

"If a wife does not provide morning tea to her husband in time, it becomes a breaking news", Azad said in a lighter vein, making a point that major development projects that are directly connected with the
welfare of the masses are either missed out or not adequately reported by print and electronic media.

The Chief Minister was addressing the 2-day All India Editors' Conference on Social Sector Issues with focus on J&K here. The conference was held consecutively second time in Kashmir. Union Minister for Rural Development, Dr. Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Union Minister of State for Railways, R. Velu, Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development, M. A. A. Fatimi. Minister for R&B,
Gulchain Singh Charak and Minister for Rural Development, Jugal Kishore Sharma were present. About 41 editors from all over the country, besides their local colleagues, are participating in the
conference, jointly organized by Press Information Bureau and State Information Department.
Azad said that media was a very powerful means to reach out to the people and sought its cooperation to educate them on massive development programmes initiated in the country for the first time,
connecting villages and concurrently providing power, drinking water and healthcare facilities across India. He said the multi-pronged strategy adopted by the government in rural and urban development
sectors needed to be highlighted by print and electronic media for the benefit of the masses. Mega projects like NURM and Bharat Nirman were going to change the development scenario in rural and urban India.

However, he said that development and people's welfare oriented newsdid not seem interesting the media much. "If one reads a newspaper or switches on to a news channel one gets to read and see only negative news like murders, family discord and arson as if the entire country was on fire.", he said, adding positive news takes a back seat.

The Chief Minister sought support of the media to reach out to people, saying the government might formulate and implement policies and enact laws but unless the masses get to know about them the entire effort comes to a naught. He hoped that media would cooperate with the government in taking the people oriented policies and programmes to the masses.

The Chief Minister presented the development scene in Jammu & Kashmir as it obtains for the last two years since he assumed office and said that his government has tried its best to develop infrastructure, have transparency, fight corruption and ensure that human rights violations do not occur. He said work culture has been changed to instill responsibility and accountability among government officials even as, through a policy of carrot and stick, efficiency was rewarded and corruption and laxity punished. He said the State, for a long time known throughout the country for grenades and all the negative
developments, has taken a turnaround with massive infrastructure development and responsive administration making the difference. He said the situation has improved and human rights violations have been checked. He said during the last 10 months not a single case of custodial disappearance has been reported in the State and, keeping his fingers crossed, he hoped that 2007 would be the first year since militancy erupted in the State when no case of custodial disappearance was reported. He said cases of custodial killings have been brought down to 5%, adding this was the result of the zero tolerance towards human rights violations announced by the Prime Minister. He said his government had made it clear that HR violations would not be countenanced and referred to the severe action taken against a senior police officer and his men involved in a fake encounter case, who, he
said, were now languishing in jail for the last one year.

The Chief Minister enumerated several significant measures taken by his government to improve administration and economic and social scenario. He made a special mention of enactment of the
anti-corruption law by which the ill-gotten property of a government official, retired or in-service, was seized by the government, making J&K the first place in the world to have such law. He said 12
properties had already been seized under the law. Likewise, he referred to the enactment of the anti-defection law to give more credibility and seriousness to electoral politics in the State. He said the size of the ministry was also reduced.

Azad said when he took over in November 2005, the immediate and serious task ahead of him was to rehabilitate the victims of the devastating earthquake. He said his government rose to the challenge
and noted with a sense of satisfaction that 98% damaged houses had already been permanently reconstructed in the affected areas. He said, he was told by visiting journalists who had been across the Line of Control that it would take another decade there to reach this level of rehabilitation of the quake victims.

The Chief Minister also referred to Roshni Act under which 21 lakh Kanals of State land worth Rs. 20,000 crore were being distributed free among the agriculturists making it the most significant measure taken by the government in the last half century. He also talked about lifting of ban on recruitment in government departments, construction of accommodation for Kashmiri migrants and massive development projects taken up in education, health, power, water supply and roads
sectors and said special monitoring mechanism was put in place for the first time to ensure that there was no mismatch on paper and ground so far as development projects were concerned. He said the additional district development commissioners assigned the task to monitoring development projects had made 4000 inspections during the last one year bringing down the complaints of corruption in development schemes by 75%. The Chief Minister had a special word of thanks for the Prime Minister
Dr. Manmohan Singh for, what he called, being always there to help Jammu & Kashmir in development matters. He also praised Dr. Raghuvansh Prasad Singh for his outright support to the State in providing liberal funds for rural development even if it meant to bend rules.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said that UPA Chairperson, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh were keen to extend liberal funding to J&K for speedier infrastructure development and implementation of welfare schemes. He said the UPA
government was fully supporting Ghulam Nabi Azad in his mission to make Jammu & Kashmir a frontline state in development. He lauded the achievements of the Azad-led government, especially in rural development sector.

Dr. Singh assured that the union government would go an extra mile to help the State government further speed up development and resources would be no constraint. He said the revolutionary NREGA scheme would be launched in the remaining districts of the State from next year to
raise community assets and generate employment. He also referred to the flagship schemes launched by his ministry in rural development.

Director General, Press Information Bureau, Mrs. Deepak Sandhu and Deputy Director General, PIB, S. M. Khan also spoke on the occasion and dwelt on the objectives of All India Editors' Conference.(IVNN)