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| LA passes historic State Finance Commission Bill | | Azad describes Bill significant, Baig explains objects | |
SRINAGAR, AUGUST 04 – In the supplementary business the State Legislative Assembly on Friday passed the Bill to provide for ensuring equitable development of all regions in the state by equitable distribution of resources available for development and making good backlog of development and employment at the regional and district levels in the State of Jammu and Kashmir L. A. Bill No. 17 with some amendments proposed by Mr. Ajay Sadhotra, Mr. Ali Mohammad Sagar and Mr. Harshdev Singh.
Explaining the benefits of early passing of the Bill by the legislature, the Chief Minister Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad said that it would provide ample time to the government to constitute the Finance Commission provided under the Bill and address to the demands and aspirations of the people for equitable distribution of resources and making good backlog on account of development and employment.
He said there is parliamentary practice for passing the Bills in one day when the subject matter of the Bill is of urgent nature and is in the public interest. He said some times matters of urgent public importance are given node without going into the discussion for the sake of discussion. He, however, welcomed the suggestions to be made by the members with regard to making the Bill more effective saying that government would have no objection in accepting feasible amendments.
Explaining the objects and reasons for the Bill, Deputy Chief Minister Mr. Muzaffar Hussain Baig said that it has been felt expedient to place focused attention on sustained and equitable development of all regions of the state by ensuring inter-alia equitable distribution of resources amongst such regions for development. He said State Finance Commission provided under the Bill shall also ensure that backlog of development and employment at the regional and district levels is made good within a specified timeframe.
He said with a view to achieving the above objective in accordance with the aspirations of the people, it is imperative to establish a State Finance Commission with statutory status for the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir. He said the Commission will propose measures for equitable dispersal of resources for development.
The terms of reference of the Commission, he said will include mapping the regions and the sub-regions with reference to well accepted development indicators; identify the backward districts and assess the deviation of these districts from the main developmental level of the State; evolve a set of policy instructions to equalize the dispersal of development across the districts; put in place measures to bring about a paradigm shift in the approach for inter se allocation of resources by treating each region and/or sub-region within the region as a target economic unit for which captive resources and those to devolve from the state shall be determined with focus on economic returns for self-sustained growth; formulating a set of administrative measures aimed at bringing about the decisions making in governance and development through decentralized process and mechanism; identifying the employment backlog at the regional, sub-regional, district or the targeted economic unit level and recommend measures for removal of disparities; and any other matter which may be ancillary or incidental to the aforesaid terms of reference.
The salient features of the Bill include constitution of the State Finance Commission (Section 3), a body to exercise the powers conferred upon and to perform the actions assigned to it under the Bill. The chairperson shall be an eminent economist with expertise in State Finance and Planning at regional level; and such other members, not exceeding five as the government may appoint from amongst persons of repute having excelled in administration, spatial/regional planning, policy planning, entreprenurship, investment, credits and legal or academic fields. Mr. Harshdev Singh’s amendment to increase the members of the Commission was accepted and the number from five in the original Bill was replaced by 9 including Chairperson.
The chairperson and the members shall be appointed by the government by notification. There shall be a Secretary to Commission to be known as Chief Executive Officer, to be appointed by the government. The office of chairman and a member shall be of a period of one year. The government may however, extend the term for six months. However, this extension of term was removed from the original Bill by accepting the amendment made by Mr. Ajay Sadhotra and Mr. Ali Mohammad Sagar.
The government shall make available an officer of Additional Secretary rank to the Commission to be the Secretary of the Commission. This section was also amended on the recommendation of Mr. Sadhotra and instead of Additional Secretary an officer to the rank of Secretary to the Government will be the Secretary of the Commission.
The Deputy Chief Minister also accepted another amendment of Mr. Sadhotra which provides for placing the report of the Commission before the House.
Clause 2 of the newly brought legislation provides for that the Commission shall review the State of Finances of the State and suggest re-structuring of the pubic finances restoring budgetary balance, achieving micro stability and debt reduction.
The Commission shall review and suggest measures for effective implementation of the recommendations and award under the 12th Finance Commission (TFC), particularly Fiscal Reform and Budget Management Programme and corrective measures for debt reduction and /or sustainability and over all improvement in human development and investment climate.
Section 12 Clause 1 of the Bill says that the Commission may require any public servant or any other person who, in its opinion is able to furnish information or produce documents relevant to the functions of the Commission to furnish any such information or produce any such documents. However, the Bill also provides that no person shall be required or authorized to furnish any information or answer any question or produce any document as might prejudice the security of the state or involve the disclosure of proceedings of the Cabinet or any Committee of the Cabinet.
Clause 2 of the Section 13 of the Bill provides that Commission shall cover the period of five years (11th Five Year Plan) commencing on 1st April 2007
Various members including Leader of the Opposition Mr. Abdul Rahim Rather, Mr. M. Y. Tarigami, Mian Altaf Ahmad, Mr. Balwant Singh Mankotia, Mr. Jugal Kishore, Mr. Ajay Sadhotra, Mr. Dilawar Mir, Mr. Ali Mohammad Sagar, Mr. Harshdev Singh, Dr. Mehboob Beg and Mir Saifullah spoke on the Bill and described it a good peace of legislation urging the government that its implementation must be ensured within the prescribed timeframe.
Earlier, Legislative Assembly also passed the Jammu and Kashmir Excise Amendment Bill 2006, L. A. Bill No. 16. The amendment authorizes government to make Rules for fixation of MRP in respect of all categories of liquor for better regulation of trade. Section 25 E of the Act requires amendment to bring all kinds of liquor under the control of government for fixing the price/regulation of trade, as such under the amendment in Clause E of Section 25 of the Jammu and Kashmir Excise Act Samvat 1958 for the words “any country liquor” the words any liquor shall be substituted. |
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