The youth have now started participating in the process of development of the Union Territory

Stone-pelting incidents have seen a drastic drop in the Kashmir region after the abrogation of Article 370 last year as per the valley residents. The residents also claimed to receive the benefits of central schemes they were bereft of earlier, a Malaysia Sun report has said.

“Our people were bereaved of benefits earlier from the central schemes because there was Article 370. After it was abrogated, our people could get those benefits as well as Constitutional rights,” Waseem Ahmad, a businessman in Sri Nagar was quoted as telling news wire service ANI in the report.

Attributing the incidents of stone-pelting to unemployment, the businessmen said the youth began participating in the development process after Article 370 was revoked.

The report pointed out that in 2016, there were 2,653 incidents of stone-throwing in the valley. According to a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in 2017, Pakistan routed money to the Kashmir valley to be paid to the stone-pelters, the report said.

The Central government had stated the stone-pelting incidents were dropped by 40 to 45 percent in the valley between August 2019 and January 2020.

Talking of the development work, Ghulam Hassan, a Sarpanch in Kashmir said that sarpanches in Kashmir received the money in their bank accounts for the same, according to the news wire service cited in the Malaysian Sun report.

The residents of the valley also claimed money was deposited in the bank accounts of the poor during the lockdown as per the report.