Shafi A Athar
Traditionally, in December and January the chief minister chaired review meetings of District Development Boards to take stock of development works in various districts. The MLAs and the district administration put up their additional demands out of which some would be fully and some partially met. However, this year the review meetings were delayed on one pretext or the other. Although review meetings are not conducted to give additional funds only, informed sources reveal that additional funds are not available which could sum up the whole issue of review meetings as futile exercise .
Paucity of funds has forced the planning department to even ignore some of the commitments made by the chief minister himself in various forums. Placing of fifty lakh and one Crore at the disposal of DDCs for unforeseen expenditure of immediate necessity were also reduced by half. Why the funds are not available is a big question?
The summer of 2010 saw violent clashes in the Kashmir valley and death toll rose above one hundred. In order to calm the situation Rs 5 lakh were sanctioned instead of routine Rs 1 lakh for deaths during turmoil. Immediately after announcement of Rs five lakh some of the political parties raised hue and cry. Although they declared that they are not against paying this money to the dependants of those killed in police action, they subtly raised the issue of regional discrimination. Subsequently, Task Force was set up to look into the demands and requirements of Jammu and Ladakh regions. The Task Force recommended additional allocation of Rs 150 Crores and Rs 100 Crores respectively for the two regions. So far no issues.
But during the discussion with the Planning Commission over the plan size of 2011-12 the said money was included in the overall allocation. This way the government experienced a deficit of Rs 250 Crores.
The irony is that Kashmiris received peanuts of Rs 5 Crore that too as “blood money” for over one hundred deaths of Kashmiri youth and Jammu and Ladakh got an additional allocation of Rs 250 Crore that too from the overall share of the state plan.
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