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| NC hates Indian laws but not Indian rupees | | Rs 50,000 crore proposal to Centre | | Rustam
Jammu, June 7: The Kashmir-based parties, including the NC, do not consider Jammu and Kashmir an integral part of India in the real sense of the term and denounce the Central laws and Central institutions. In fact, they dismiss the Central laws and institutions as anti-Kashmir and anti-Kashmiri Muslims and want New Delhi to roll back all the central laws and institutions which were extended to the State after August 9, 1953. But, at the same time, they want New Delhi to pump into Kashmir billions and billions of Indian rupees so that its needs and needs of the people of Kashmir could be met. It is strange that they despise the mainstream politics, but go to Delhi with a begging bowl each time it faces financial problem.
Take, for example, the NC and the proposal it submitted to the 14th Finance Commission on Friday. Apart from urging the Central Government to hand over to the state the NHPC 790-MW Salal and 390-MW Dulhasti power projects to the State, the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah's "wish-list" or the state Government's 20-chapter proposal demanded increase in free power quota to Jammu and Kashmir from existing "12 per cent to 30 per cent" from the NHPC power projects in the State and "compensation" to the state for the losses on account of Indus Water Treaty that restricts the State from exploiting hydropower and irrigation potential on rivers flowing into Pakistan. In fact, the Omar Abdullah Government, which do not miss any opportunity to lambast New Delhi and demand withdrawal of all the Central laws and institutions, demanded Rs 50,000-crore financial assistance from the 14th Finance Commission, saying it needed this much amount to address the various issues and improve sectors like health, elementary education, agriculture and modernize jails and create infrastructure for administration of justice. The proposal also talked about the funds the state Government required to create new administrative units in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. Omar Abdullah expressed the hope that both BJP-led Government at New Delhi and the Commission would take into account the challenges facing the State and recommend a financial package that helps the state Government to improve the social and economic life of the people.
It is important to note that the Jammu and Kashmir Government, which has converted the state into one of the most corrupt states in the country and where ruling elite and pliable sections of bureaucracy live like princes at the cost of the common people, cannot pay even salaries to its employees and that it depends wholly and solely on the central Government as far as finances are concerned. Notwithstanding its bad economic health and its total dependence on the Union Government, the ruling coalition, especially the NC, has never ever tried to harmonize the State-Centre relations by seeking to bridge the existing political and constitutional gap between the state and New Delhi. On the contrary, it has consistently tried to widen further this gap to play dirty communal games in the Valley so that it could remain in power and retain control over it. Its only agenda all along has been to fleece the Indian nation, get maximum funds from New Delhi by playing politics of blackmail and threat and help grow fissiparous tendencies in the Valley. It could do so because political instability had gripped New Delhi. But gone are those days when the likes of Omar Abdullah would browbeat and blackmail New Delhi. The mandate 2014 has changed the country's whole political scenario. It has negated the 1989 verdict by empowering one political party to rule in the best interest of the country.
To write all this is not to suggest that the proposal of the state Government needed to be rejected. It should not be done. The Centre must help the State Government to mitigate the hardships of the people. But, at the same time, it must ensure that the taxpayers' money is used for the purposes it is sanctioned and stringent action would be taken against wrongdoers. Transparency and accountability must be there. |
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