| Omar gives Rs 82,000 crores wish list to Centre | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Dec 29: Chief minister, enjoying cool weather of London, thousands of miles away from N Delhi, listed out an ambitious list of wishes to the Centre. Omar , probably the only chief minister to skip National Development Council (NDC) meeting held at New Delhi and chaired by Prime Minister had asked the Centre to grant Rs 68,000 crores for development during 12th plan and an additional Rs. 32,000 crores for laying metro in Jammu and Srinagar.
He didn't stop there and went to add that Centre should also give another Rs. 2500 crores annually for policing, in view of national security concerns.
The list of demands was presented by finance minister Abdul Rahim Rather in his absence.
Omar, who was probably the only CM to skip the all important national event, had also probably presented the longest list of demands.
The list was presented by the chief minister who had often said he feel humiliated and disgraced for taking begging bowl with the Centre to fund resources of the State. He had said quite often that the only way to secure financial independence is exploit potential of its water resources.
However, the point missed by the CM is that State itself doesn't have enough financial resources to raise hydel projects on its own. And secondly, if it wants to raise funds from the banks and other financial institutions, for that also it doesn't have resources to give counter guarantee and for that also it needs assistance by the Centre.
In four-year of the office, the CM had done little to change financial landscape of the State. The CM should have atleast asked the Centre to continue with special tax package for J&K to woo investors . Not only that he should have pressed with the Centre to hike the tax concessions for investors who intend to invest in J&K.
But since investments was to be made in Jammu, he didn't press the case.
The CM who is interested in metro systems in Jammu and Srinagar should first get the reforms under JNNURM get passed by the State Assembly.
The CM should also take a lesson from urban reforms initiated by Narendra Modi in Gujarat especially under Bus Rapid Transport System (BRTS) which has helped in streamlining. However, the CM had not greeted Modi on his win, even on twitter, leave alone taking lesson from him. |
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