New Delhi, May 11 (PTI) Union minister Jitendra Singh on Wednesday said that the transition from the agriculture sector to manufacturing is particularly important for Jammu and Kashmir which has taken up specific steps towards rapid economic growth.

Addressing a workshop on urban governance, he said that small and medium towns of the UT will play an important role to develop municipal infrastructure as an enabler to economic activities particularly in the areas of processing agro-produce, weaving industry, and development of IT services.

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Singh, the Minister of State for Personnel, said that transition from the agriculture sector to manufacturing is particularly important for J&K which has taken up specific steps towards rapid economic growth and investments in its economy, particularly during the last three years.

These steps will bring a shift in the economic profile of the state and create more jobs in manufacturing and services, a statement issued by the Personnel Ministry said.

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Singh said, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has great plans for the development of J&K and accordingly, “we have established urban local bodies as per 74th Constitution Amendment Act”.

He said with elected bodies, the application of urban missions of the government of India like the development of infrastructure, improvement of quality of life, environment, mobility, water and sanitation will achieve full potential.

The minister said, J-K had a 27% urban population in 2011 and this poses a challenge to move towards halfway mark of urbanisation which means more attention on industries and investment in coming decades.

He was addressing the orientation workshop on urban governance for mayors/chairpersons and municipal commissioners/chief executives officers from urban local bodies from Jammu & Kashmir here.

This journey process means acceleration of urban sector reforms effectively for municipal services and infrastructure as initiated by our urban missions and underlined that the role of elected leaders of municipal bodies will be important to achieve this goal as these leaders constitute a pool of grass root leaders and promote a bottom-up leadership in our federal structure of democracy, the minister said.

Singh, a Lok Sabha member from Jammu and Kashmir's Udhampur constituency, said, during the next 25 years India will undergo a transition from semi-urban (25% plus) to an urban majority society and economic growth and urbanisation will go hand in hand.

He said it is visible in the country that the states with the above-average level of urbanisation have much higher per capita income than states with a low levels of urbanisation like Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha etc., according to the statement.

The states from Gujarat up to Tamil Nadu have either achieved the 50% mark (Tamil Nadu) or are closer to the urban majority, the minister pointed out.

(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)