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| Bail J&K out of fiscal crisis to improve BJP's image | | | The PDP and the BJP had won first round of poll battle with the Congress and the National Conference.It seems that poll victory has not satiated PDP and BJP's hunger for hitting hard the National Conference and the Congress.The two have found an issue for castigating the previous ruling alliance. The PDP and the BJP leadership blames the Congress-NC Government for the financial crisis the state of Jammu and Kashmir is faced with.The financial crisis is so severe that the Government plans to go in for market borrowing.And the Governor,N.N. Vohra has decided to take up the issue with the central Government so that release of funds could help the state in coming out of the fiscal crisis.The state has to bank on the centre for funding the state's plan and non-plan schemes.Upto 80 per cent of the wage bill of the state Government employees too is being borne by the Government of India because the internal revenue does not keep pace with the expenditure on the establishment besides plans that fall in the pl,an and the non-plan sector.As a result of financial crisis the state agencies are unable to clear bills of scores of contractors who had completed their assigned tasks.In various public sector undertakings and some Government departments employees fail to receive monthly salary on time.
Well if former Finance Minister,Abdul Rahim Rather ,is to be believed the Government of India is responsible for the financial crisis because till date only 40 per cent of the plan funds had been released when the financial year was to end within next two months or so.Abdur Rahim Rather has said he shouldn't be blamed for current financial crisis."Everything was going smooth till I held the portfolio of the Finance Ministry. Floods wreaked havoc across the State and we couldn't press for release of the remaining Plan amount; and then the elections were imposed on us," he has stated."The 40% funds already released by the Centre earlier have been sent to various departments as per their requirements without any delay by our government. Now there are only two months (February and March) left for release of the 60 per cent remaining funds. I believe if the Government of India is approached seriously, the crisis will be over," Rather said no new exercise is required to be conducted for release of plan funds. "We have settled things with the Government of India and the annual plan of Rs 11300 crore including Rs 600 crore PMRP stands already approved," he said. "The State, through Governor N N Vohra or a new dispensation, should approach the Centre and seek release of the plan funds. Once the plan funds would be released, the financial crisis would be over within a week.
However, the BJP continues to blame the previous NC led Government for the current financial crisis. Union Minister of State (MoS) in the Prime Minister's Office DrJitendra Singh blamed the National Conference-Congress coalition government for financial crisis in Jammu and Kashmir"The previous government failed to manage finances in a proper way, but the central government is committed to bail out the state from this mess," he has said.Singh said whatever observations the Governor NN Vohra has made to Finance Minister would be addressed. Vohra has already written to Jaitely on the issue. It is not the time to find people responsible for the financial crisis.It is time a way is found which will help the state in coming out of the financial stringency so that people of Jammu and Kashmir were not forced to suffer nor the development works were affected.
"The financial crunch did not emerge in the past 10 days; it is the pervious state government which is responsible for plunging the state into worst-ever financial crisis," Jitendra Singh has said.He is right but he too needs to persuade the Union Finance Minister to bail out the state of the present fiscal crisis.First of all let the centre release remaining 60 per cent plan funds as is being claimed by Abdul Rahim Rather.Later the centre could provide additional financial assistance for helping the state to be in a position to meet plan and non-plan commitments. Since the BJP has plans of sharing power with the PDP in Jammu and Kashmir it is the duty of the BJP led NDA Government in the centre to adopt a highly liberal outlook while releasing additional funds for Jammu and Kashmir.And it is equally the duty of the new Government to ensure that whatever funds were rel.eased by the centre were spent properly. |
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