The J&K government is however faced with the gigantic task of rebuilding scores of structures burnt down by militants in the last eight years, he said.

According to Jaitly, a total of 344 bridges, 780 educational institutions, 1277 government buildings, 9560 private houses, 1708 shops and 10 hospitals were burnt down by terrorists. ``We require an estimated Rs 500 crore to set things right,'' said Jaitly in an informal press meet today. He admitted that it would be a long time before everything was normal again and that there had been ``no accountability'' in any section all these years.

``The three big government hospitals are in a terrible condition... overcrowded, lacking staff and equipment,'' the chief secretary said. Unemployment is still a major problem. ``There are1.5 lakh educated unemployed.''

To ease the situation the government is focusing on self-employment with the help of banks. However schools have begun functioning regularly and the regional college of engineering has filled up its share of 25 per cent out-of-state students quota, he added. Regarding the most important aspect of relocating 3.5 lakh Kashmiri Pandits who fled the Valley in 1992, Jaitly said the state had proposed a plan of Rs 3800 crore to get them back. But the priority, he stressed, was to bring back professionals like doctors and teachers in stages. A confidence-building exercise is the need of the hour, he said.

Portraying an optimistic picture, Jaitly informed that it was the general elections that had helped ease things in the Valley. He added that the state was now looking forward to holding the panchayat elections in 45,000 constituencies for which the election process starts on October 11.

Economic recovery too has speeded up in the past year-and-a-half, Jaitly said, adding thegovernment is focusing on power and infrastructure projects.

Another sign of normalcy, he said, was the rapidly decreasing involvement of local youth in militancy which in turn was ``down to a minimum''. However he agreed that this in no way indicated that militancy was over. There were pockets that were still of concern especially in the Valley, Poonch and Doda, he observed.

Tourism in J&K is also on the rise and Srinagar which had ``turned into a ghost town'' is now ``alive till 8 pm'', the chief secretary added. Even locals are out in large numbers on weekends, he said.