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| J&K's finance commission report contradicts Rangarajan Panel | | Road Connectivity? | | Syed Junaid Hashmi
JAMMU, Dec 26: Report of Jammu and Kashmir State Finance Commission (SFC) is contradictory, prejudiced and written seemingly to justify disparity in the allocation of developmental funds to Jammu region. While doing so, the panel has contracted even the report of ace economist Dr. C. Rangarajan.
Report is arbitrary and devoid of extensive research. In-depth reading gives credence to popular belief that SFC's sole aim has remained justification of economic and developmental backwardness of Jammu region. Much of the report is explanation of disparity in regional allocation of developmental funds between Jammu and Kashmir. Ace Economist Dr. Mehmood-ur-Rehman has seemingly worked in close association with Prof. Nisar Ali and respective secretaries of the commission to lend credence to the much propounded official and political theory of 'Jammu region getting more funds and being much ahead on the developmental front'.
Prof. Nisar Ali has at Page 262 in second volume of the report stated that Jammu region has much higher percentage of better quality roads than the Kashmir and Ladakh regions. He has even referred to certain figures to substantiate his statement. Interestingly, the Professor has through his statement has rebutted credible findings of India's ace Economist, ex-Governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Chairman of Prime Minister's Economic Advisory group Dr. C. Rangarajan.
Dr. C. Rangarajan as head of 'Task Force on Development of Jammu and Kashmir' has expressed disappointment over huge inter-district variations in road density especially in Jammu region and recommended for redressing situation on war-footing basis. The Task Force was constituted by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on March 29, 2005 and it submitted the report in November 2006.
Rangarajan's panel which included ace economists and industrialists of the country has pointed out huge inter-district variations in road density ranging from a high of 81.8 percent in Budgam in Kashmir region to a low of 2.6 percent in Leh in Ladakh region. Panel had stated that Kargil in Ladakh region with a road density of less than 5 percent and Doda with just about 5 percent need enormous investments to be brought at par with the state level let alone the national level.
In complete contrast to findings of Prof. Nisar Ali and Dr. Mehmood-ur-Rehman, Rangarajan's Panel has in tabulated form put forth road density across districts in the three regions of the state. Tabulated data at Page 14 of the task force report confirms that lowest road density in Kashmir region is 33.3 Km/Sq Km in Anantnag district while that in Jammu and Ladakh region, lowest road density is 5.2 Km/Sq Km in Doda district and 2.6 Km/Sq Km in Leh district respectively.
Even road density of Jammu district (55.8 Km/Sq Km) is far lesser than Budgam (81.8 Km/Sq Km), Pulwama (62.8 Km/Sq Km) and Srinagar (81.8 Km/Sq Km) districts of Kashmir region. Leh and Kargil have worst roads. However, the only exception has been Prof. Nisar Ali has made mention of Jammu's road length being far lesser than Kashmir region's. The road length of Jammu region stands at 6983 kilometres while that of Kashmir region is 9587 kilometres. When a senior official was contacted, he said "Road density of Kashmir region is high because areas are more compact when compared with Jammu region." He accepted that report has been prepared by a group whose members belonged to three different regions of the state.
"It was not a feasible preposition. The then government constituted the commission at its fag end. It was more of political accommodation. The commission should have done more rigorous exercise while preparing the report," said the official. He stressed that larger question now is how to implement recommendations of the report. The State Finance Commission (SFC) was constituted on August 31, 2006 for a period of one year and assigned the task of examining eight points of references i.e. Review state of finances, suggest restructuring of public finances, restoring budgetary balance, achieving macro-economic stability, studying regional disparities, identifying backward districts and debt reduction. It submitted the five volume report to government on November 30, 2010. |
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