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| Hostile attitude of Rehman, Nissar towards Jammu and Ladakh not surprising | | BIASED FINANCE COMMISSION -- I | | RUSTAM
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Dec 4: It was expected that the chairman of the State Finance Commission, Mehmood-ur-Rehman, and former Head of Kashmir University's Economic Department, Nissar Ali, would not come up with a report based on facts and it has really happened. It was also expected that they would see to it that those representing Jammu province and Ladakh region in the Finance Commission, Swami Raj Sharma and Sonam Dawa, would not be allowed to play their role designed to prepare a report indicating the extent to which Jammu and Ladakh have been discriminated against over the years by the Kashmiri-dominated and Valley-centric successive governments in the state and it has happened as well. The report has been submitted (November 30) and Sharma and Dawa are bemoaning saying that Rehman and Ali have overruled them and not incorporated in the report their assessment based on the official statistics.
The hostile attitude of Rehman and Ali should not surprise anyone. They were expected to defeat Jammu and Ladakh and they did it brazenly, with those representing the discriminated against Jammu and Ladakh being left high and dry. However, Sharma and Dawa have done a huge service by making public their findings to expose not just the Rehman-Ali duo, but also the discriminatory policies being ruthlessly pursued by the Kashmir-centric administration. What exactly is the complaint of Sharma and Dawa and what are the findings? Their complaint is that their findings have not been included in the final report. They have prepared a "parallel" report containing glaring instances of discrimination. Their findings, among other things, include invidious and humiliating distinctions between Kashmir and Jammu in terms of allocation of funds as far as at least nine very vital sectors of development are concerned. These include Agriculture, Health and Medical Education, PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control, Roads and Buildings and Rural Development for 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th Plan periods and Social Welfare and Tourism sectors for 11th Five Year Plan period (2007-2012).
As per their findings, "right from the early fifties, when Five Years Plan was introduced in the state, no rational criteria was prepared and adopted by the Government for making annual allotment of funds amongst the three regions and the districts. The funds were mostly allotted at the discretion of the Ministers-In-charge of various departments and Planning Department. No dispassionate exercise was ever conducted through some impartial body to ascertain whether any injustice has been caused to any region and its districts in the matter of allotment of funds made in the past."
Quoting figures as contained in the Annual Plan Document 2008-09, published by the Planning Department vis-a-vis total allotments and expenditure for two regions of the State-Jammu and Kashmir -- covering district and State Sector plans for the 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th Five Year Plan periods, they have pointed out that "barring Elementary Education sector", less funds were allocated to Jammu province as compared to Kashmir in sectors like Agriculture and Allied Departments, Health and Medical Education, Irrigation, Flood Control and PHE, Rural Development and Allied Departments and Roads and Buildings during the last about 18 years staring from 1992.
According to them, in the 8th Five Year Plan (1992-97) period, while Kashmir got Rs 12347.00 lakh under the Agriculture and Allied Sectors, Jammu province got Rs 10007.00 lakh (Rs 2340.00 lakh less as compared to Kashmir region). In the 9th Five Year Plan (1997-2002) period, while Kashmir region got Rs 23150.00 lakh, Jammu got only Rs 17757 lakh (Rs 5393 lakh less as compared to Kashmir). Likewise, in the 10th Five Year Plan (2002-2007) period, while Kashmir got Rs 36070 lakh, Jammu province got Rs 33885 lakh (Rs 2185 lakh less as compared to Kashmir). As for the 11 Five Year Plan (2007-2012) period, Kashmir got Rs 46043 lakh and Jammu Rs 42338 (Rs 3705 lakh less as compared to Kashmir). In other words, Jammu province got Rs 13623 lakh less as compared to Kashmir since 1992 despite the fact that the irrigated area of Jammu region is 1,82,854 hectares, as against 1,82,000 hectares in Kashmir; despite the fact that the total land area in Jammu province is over 26,000 sq Km, as against Kashmir's less than 16,000 sq km. (To be continued) |
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