Srinagar, Sep 12 (PTI) Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Sunday appealed to the youth of the Union territory to be aware of the neighbouring country's "nefarious designs", and urged them to stay away from drugs and work diligently towards contributing to the progress of the nation.

"Our neighbouring country, which has failed in its nefarious design to disturb peace and prosperity, is smuggling drugs into J&K to disrupt growth of our youth. We need to tackle this menace collectively," the Lt Governor said in an apparent reference to Pakistan.

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He urged the youth to not fall for conspiracy which is intended to push their future into darkness and to stay away from drugs and work diligently towards contributing to the progress of the nation.

Sinha was speaking at the Kashmir Leadership Summit at SKICC here where he felicitated young achievers with the 'Kashmir Young Leadership Award'.

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The Lt Governor congratulated young achievers who received the award for their outstanding work in different fields and lauded their contribution for bringing positive changes in society.

"Young leaders facilitate creation of a prosperous society that did not exist before. The young leaders, young minds can alone solve the entire world's great problems and generate more ideas and resources to confront the future challenges," he said.

Sinha said there is no better source of growth for a country than the power of youth. With the help of technology and benefits of globalistion, the young population is the true maker of an advance and equal society, he added.

Youth has great powers and it has to be exercised with responsibility, values, morality, and ethics for further progression of humanity, he said.

Under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, J&K is moving ahead on the path of progress and development, keeping in mind the expectations and aspirations of the youth. Achievement in different fields is a sign of progress made in empowering youth, he said.

The LG said the youth are the focal point of UT governments' developmental agenda and several reformative measures are being undertaken by the administration to address issues of the youth and tapping their full potential for developing a peaceful and progressive Jammu Kashmir.

Sinha said during the course of his regular interactions with the youth in the last 13 months, he has noted that the youth of J&K have five important priorities today -- first, they should get jobs according to their qualifications, secondly, they should get ample opportunities and handholding to become entrepreneurs.

"Third, access to modern education in consonance with market requirements and dynamically changing skill-sets; fourth, implementation of good governance practices and elimination of corruption completely from the system and their fifth priority is to have the opportunity to lead a healthy, peaceful, and secure life," he said.

As many as 46 young achievers in various fields, including health, education, sports, adventure sports, social work, journalism, environment conservation, etc have been awarded on the occasion.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)