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| A look through the mist | | Budget speech of Rather reflected the vision of Omar Abdullah lead government | |
By *Daya Sagar
It was day ten of August 2009 when Abdul Rahim Rather presented the annual budget of J&K for 9th time in the J&K Assembly. The budget proposals and budget speech of Mr. Rather in a way reflected the vision and programmes that Omar Abdullah lead government has in view. Hence some questions have been raised on the budget although some of them could appear outside the scope of normal budgetary elements. Money wise no finance minister could have come up with a better budget than what Mr. Rather gave. What investments and reliefs could be expected from a Finance Minister who had only Rs.3111 crores as tax revenue in sight with even the non-plan salary expenditure of Rs.6,594 crore ( and to add this additional Rs.121 crores for salaries of migrant employees, Rs.1,412 crores to meet expenditure on pension and retirement benefits and Rs 1729 crores for interest payments ). The non tax revenue estimate of Rs.1219 crore is too tiny before the gap to meet the budgeted needs and programmes. But it was the long experience and the feel of ground conditions with Mr. Rather that made him to still come up with visionary budget proposals. No doubt the total receipts are pegged around Rs. 23000 crores. And to add this as per Finance minister 2007-2008, the Gross State Domestic Product on constant prices was just Rs 23,060 crore ( it shows J&K is economically dependent on Central Government ).Still the finance minister has been bold enough to announce the payment of increased amount of 22% DA (with effect from January 1, 2009) in cash from the first of July, 2009.
Corrections and reliefs proposed by the Finance Minister are not sufficient to meet all the deficiencies and demands( 6 decade old demands of Pakistan Occupied Displaced Persons , the Public Sector Employees wages and superannuation benefits , increase in % of non practicing allowance to government doctors in view of government having increased the consultation fee of those doctors who are allowed private practice like from Rs.100 to Rs.150 in some cases, special allowance and accommodation to school teachers posted in backward/ remote areas , cash dole to unemployed youth , demands of long term residential lease holders under Roshi Scheme and the like have been left untouched).
But still Mr. Rather having taken visionary notice of some very important issues deserves all appreciations. The concern for the common man could well be seen in (i) Allocation for agriculture/ allied activities up by 30% & for Irrigation and Flood Control up by 122%. (ii)Revising the wages under Minimum Wages Act from Rs. 70 to Rs.110 per day ( although looking at todays minimum needs it should have been atleast Rs.200 per day ) (iii) Rehbr-e-Zerat employees to get pay increase by Rs 1500 pm (Finance Minister has considerately increased the salary of Doctors employed under NRHM from Rs. 8000 to Rs. 16000 pm, why not treat ReZ on similar lines. ReT youth too suffer from exploitation and the wage in no case be less than Rs.6000 pm when government is paying nearly Rs.5000 pm cash relief plus ration to Kashmiri migrants,(iv) laying down firm policy for regularization of contractual/ adhoc employees, (v) creating two special rehabilitation task forces for revival of sick units on fast track basis ( t State Public Sector particularly needs this to save the families of lower level employees of PSE from socio economic distress and the state exchequer from draining ) (vi) allowing government departments in far flung areas to start the year with 100% of their previous year’s plan allocations (vii) providing area specific special provisions under the district plans to pull up the areas lagging behind to some average level , (viii) spotting additional 20,000 kanals of waste-land particularly in backward areas for creation of a land bank for new industrial units, (ix) to formulate ‘State Policy on Skill Development’ (create 3.5 lac per year ‘workforce with improved skills, knowledge and internationally recognized qualifications (x) Since Jammu Kashmir Scheduled castes/Scheduled Tribes (J&K SC/ST) Corporation has not been able to draw money from National Minorities Development Finance Corporation (NMDFC ) for the last five years propose to nominate JK EDI as an additional State Channelizing Agency of NMDFC ( I would suggest that reasons for failure of SC/ST Corporation be first assessed and only then EDI be retained ), (xi) creation of an Overseas Employment Corporation , (xii) under women empowerment programme in the first phase 2,200 women will be granted direct loans upto Rs.3 lakh at 6% interest through the State Women Development Corporation (how the State Women Development Corporation shall ensure the techno economic viability and evolve a scientific monitoring mechanism will have to be ascertained first ) (xiii) government proposes to draw the best available talent for public services through the PSC and the Service Selection Boards. Backlog of the vacancies available with PSC is 4,023 and with SSSB is 10,582 ( but challenge before Rather will be to ensure that how PSC and SSB are able to complete recruitment process with in 3 to 12 months maximum depending upon the selection procedure to be followed.(xiii) sanction of incentive of Rs. 4000 to Rs.8000 for the doctors serving in remote and difficult area to be classified as category-A & B, (xiv) to restore the Social mosaic of Kashmir proposing 15000 jobs in the State and private sector for KP migrants ( it will be a challenge for government to convince migrant KPs to fore go migrant status infavour of a job in Kashmir Valley. So far all efforts have failed to rehabilitate even migrant KPs employees for whom a provision of Rs.121 crore has been kept for migrant salary .Ofcourse a budgetary allocation of Rs. 132 crore for construction/completion of 5242 pucca tenements in Jammu under the Prime Ministers Reconstruction Plan and a sum of Rs. 3 crore to complete the road to village Jagti where new tenements are under constructions has also been kept ) and (xv) provision of Rs 25 crore (non-refundable) for the skillful youth who opt for loans but have no margin money to avail credit from the financial system.
And above all rehabilitation of widows and orphans affected by militancy after1989/90 has been kept on priority. But those who were affected by the 1947 disturbances and were displaced from Pakistan Occupied areas of J&K have expressed frustration after reading the budget speech . Mr. Lal Singh MP had arranged a meeting of DPs delegation lead by Rajiv Chuni in August 2005 at new Delhi with Dr. Man Mohan Singh Jee . Four years have since passed. They are looking for claims of property / cash left back in banks in POK, compensation for socio economic retardation they suffered , compensation for no special support over last 6 decades in service/ business / education as has been extended to 1990 Kashmiri migrants and the like.
As per notes furnished by Ministry of Supply and Rehabilitation ( Department of Rehabilitation ) GOI and J&K Government in 1978 to Rajya Sabha Committee on petitions ( petitioner Bachan Singh Panchi through Sheikh Abdul Rehman MP) no claims of properties were given to POK DPs of 1947. Only an ex gratia grant amounting to Rs.3500 per family was payable to some families who were further divided into two categories viz rural and urban. In the case of rural families Rs. 1000 was paid in cash and against the balance amount they were to be allotted land. To non agriculturists having income of Rs.300/pm or less Rs.3500 per family ex gratia cash. Applications were invited in 1960 for ex gratia. Due to eligibility condition kept all displaced persons could not apply even for ex gratia. In all 31696 applications were received f and may be another 15000 could not apply even for ex gratia. No applications were ever invited till date for registration of property and members of families who were displaced from POK parts of J&K . Going by rough estimates the displaced families from POK must have grown to atleast 1.5 lac families in 2009. Many have not even received the small ex gratia / land in full. To quote to start with the Joint Rehabilitation Board headed by the then Major General Tara Singh Bal decided to allot to DPs, land measuring 12 acres abi/ 18 acres Khushkee and then 8 acres abi / 12 acres Khushkee. Later on even 4 acre abi or 6 acre khushki norms were also not met in full. Hope Finance Minister would surely attend to the case POK DPs and other similar aspirations of people in the vision document of Omar Government that he told for release soon.
There were already many questions raised on the intentions of the Gulam Nabi Azad lead government as regards the amendments in the Roshni Act / rules. Those holding long term lease for residential purposes had alleged that they had been treated at par with unauthorized encroachers / land grabbers and were hoping some relief from Omar government. Instead of some relief policy announcement the proceedings in the assembly as of 18 th August have created some more work for leaders like Abdul Rahim Rather and youthful Raman Bhalla. On March 9, 2009, the Legislative Assembly was informed that upto due date 2,00,659 applications under Roshni were received and now on August 18, 2009 Legislative Assembly has been informed that 243509 applications were received. In the vision document Government will have to attend to left over aspirations of the people. *( Daya Sagar is a Sr Coloumnist on Kashmir affairs and a social activist [email protected] )
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