(Bloomberg) -- India announced a mass recruitment drive to fill up to 50,000 vacancies in government departments in Kashmir and signaled it would further lift communication restrictions in parts of the country's only Muslim-majority state.
The governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Satya Pal Malik, made the announcement just hours after India's top court agreed to hear a petition challenging the constitutionality of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to scrap Kashmir's autonomy. The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to immediately lift an unprecedented state-wide lockdown on communications and movement.
Malik also said in a statement the government was working on a program to provide a minimum support price for the apple crop in the state and that the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India was willing to commit over 50 billion rupees ($697 million) for procuring over 50% of apple production of the state, benefiting more than 700,000 farmers.
Restrictions on mobile phones in all 10 districts of Jammu, as well as in Kupwara and Handwara Police districts in the Kashmir valley would be lifted, the statement said.
India's government on Aug. 5 scrapped Kashmir's autonomy, bringing the region under direct federal government administration.
To contact the reporter on this story: Archana Chaudhary in New Delhi at achaudhary2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Ten Kate at dtenkate@bloomberg.net, Alpana Sarma, Ruth Pollard
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
Essential Business Intelligence, Continuous LIVE TV, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.
