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| JK in deep financial crisis as PC withholds plan funds | | | Bashir Assad
SRINAGAR, Aug 14: With each passing day, the problems for Omar Abdullah Government are getting compounded. Thanks to an inordinate delay in the approval of the annual plan by the Planning Commission of India for the current financial year, development works in the state have come to a grinding halt.
Sources in the Planning and Finance Departments told Early Times on Wednesday that due to withholding of plan funds by the Centre, the financial crises is deepening to an alarming extent. The situation is so bad that soon, there may be no money to provide fuel for Government vehicles, what to speak of spending on developmental works.
A senior bureaucrat told Early Times that in normal course, the Planning Department would release the second installment in the second quarter of the year. He said that the situation is moving from bad to worse. The bureaucrat said that ahead of Eid this year, the Government raised a loan of Rs. 300 crore from Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board. It was only then that the Government was able to release the salary bills of its employees.
The state Government was hopeful that the Centre will approve and subsequently release the annual plan for J&K soon after the budget session of the Parliament concluded. However, a senior official said it is not clear as yet whether the Central Government will re-constitute the Planning Commission, as all the members and deputy chairman had resigned after the new Government assumed office. " It will be a time consuming process in case the Union Government appoints the members of the Commission. However, if the Government dissolves the institution as was earlier said, in that case Finance Ministry will approve and release the annual plan," an official said.
"The State Government is trying its best to manage the situation with available resources, but these too will exhaust in coming days. Until the annual plan of the state isn't approved, which appears a distinct possibility as of now, the developmental process in the state could come to a standstill," sources added.
The sword of model code of conduct for the upcoming Assembly polls is another worry for the State Government. Assembly polls are due in November this year. "The development season of the current year could suffer badly as Jammu and Kashmir is scheduled to go to Assembly polls later this year," sources said. Moreover, the working season in the mountain regions of the state ends in the month of October/November. Officials are worried that there are hardly a couple of months left for undertaking the developmental projects.
The inordinate delay in plan approval has hit the season badly and even if the plan is approved by now, chances of lapse of funds are swelling.
"This season is likely to go waste and so the prospects of progress," said an official.
Officials in the Finance Department revealed that the bulk of the state's revenue expenditure which includes salaries, pension and wages is met from non-plan funds.
A senior officer in the Finance Department said Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had taken up the issue of early approval of annual plan of Jammu and Kashmir during his meeting with Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Srinagar in the month of June.
"However, the Centre has decided that it would take up annual plans of all States after approval of budget by the Parliament. But to give some relaxation to five states, scheduled to go for polls, the Centre has decided to take up plans at the earliest," he added. Last year also there was inordinate delay in plan finalization and the meeting for the same matured only in late July. Then the Commission created a problematic situation for J&K by approving annual plan of Rs 7,300 crore - Rs 700 crore less than the projection made by the state. |
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