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| Jammu gets Rs 2.29 lakh, Kashmir Rs 364.07 lakh | | Height of Discrimination | | RUSTAM
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Mar 13: There is feeling in Jammu that the Jammu-based ministers are responsible for the neglect of this province, which contributes to the state exchequer every year over 70 per cent revenue and, in return, gets only crumbs. The feeling is well-founded. There is no doubt that it is the Jammu-based leadership that has consistently failed the people of Jammu province, Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs included, for promoting their personal interests.
One can catalogue here innumerable instances to prove that the Jammu-based leadership has always supported the anti-Jammu policies being diligently devised and ruthlessly implemented by the rulers, without any exception. The latest example is the disclosure made on the floor of the Legislative Assembly on Friday (March 12) by the Jammu-based National Conference leader and minister, who hold the industry portfolio.
The said minister shocked the people of Jammu province in general and the suffering industrialists in particular by revealing that the state government has disbursed money to the tune of Rs 364.07 lakh to make functional as many as 31 sick industrial units in the Kashmir Valley and Rs 2.29 lakh to one particular sick industrial unit in Jammu province for the same purpose. He described the disbursal of this amount as "soft loan". It is a different story that Federation of Industries, Jammu, hailed the annual budget for reasons best known to it and ignored gross injustice inflicted on the Jammu-based industrialists.
The concerned minister, who always asserts that the state government treats all the regions equally, virtually held the Jammu-based owners of sick industrial units responsible for the disparity between the two regions as far as the disbursal of "soft loan" was concerned. He told the Assembly that the government disbursed Rs 364.07 lakh for the revival of 31 sick industrial units in the Kashmir Valley out of a total of 60 sanctioned cases and disbursed Rs 2.29 lakh to one such industrial unit in Jammu out of a total of seven sanctioned cases. The minister also asserted that "neither fake industrial unit has been provided subsidy nor any unit has become untraceable after availing the subsidy benefits".
The Industry Minister justified this glaring discrimination with the people of Jammu province saying "in respect of (the) remaining cases, the requisite formalities are incomplete due to which disbursement could not be made so far". While making these disturbing revelations and the causes behind discrimination with the people of Jammu province in this respect, the minister very conveniently overlooked the fact that even if he had disbursed "soft loan" for the revival of the said seven sick industrial units, the situation would have remained the same. It would have mean 60 for Kashmir, as against a paltry seven in Jammu.
Credit goes to the JKNPP MLA and former Cabinet Minister, Harsh Dev Singh, who took on the concerned minister and accused him of misleading the House by furnishing untrustworthy and contradictory information. He, in fact, challenged the concerned minister saying "last year (the) minister had stated that about 15,000 industrial units availed subsidy and become untraceable". To substantiate his charge he even showed the copy of the minister's last year's reply to the Speaker of the Assembly.
It is surprising that the BJP remained mum on the crucial issue of discrimination with the people of Jammu province. Perhaps, it has become part of the destroy-Jammu politico-administrative apparatus.
It is time for the Jammu-based Congress leadership to oppose the discriminatory policies against the people, as also the Permanent Resident (Disqualification) Bill. Not to do so would be only to help its political opponents in the Jammu province occupy the Congress' political space. |
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