Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 4: The Finance Department today said that the stand taken by it on Jammu and Kashmir Bank questions in the Legislative Assembly was only a reiteration of the stated position of successive Governments.
“It was only a reiteration of the stated position of the successive State Governments regarding questions of the legislators pertaining to the business of the Jammu and Kashmir Bank,” a spokesman of the Finance Department said.
He said the letter had been written to the Legislative Assembly Speaker earlier and was not the recent one.
“This has reference to the communication of J&K Legislative Assembly Secretariat bearing No. LA446-48/AQ/2015 regarding AQ Nos. 114 and 140. The questions raised by the Members pertained to the banking,” Drabu had said in his letter.
“As you are aware, the banking is a Central subject. The commercial working of the banks is regulated and monitored by the Reserve Bank of India as the sole Regulatory Authority under the Banking Regulation Act. Besides, by virtue of entry 45 of List-1 of 7th Schedule of the Constitution of India, as applicable to the State of J&K, the functioning of the banks falls in domain of the Parliament. As such, the questions regarding banking issues can’t be taken up in the State Legislature,” the letter signed by Haseeb A Drabu himself and addressed to the Speaker earlier, had said.
The latter had added: “the Finance Department has all along been requesting the Assembly Secretariat not to admit/entertain the questions of the Members pertaining to banking and accordingly the Assembly Secretariat had been kind enough to accede to our request. In view of the position, it is once again requested that the questions pertaining to the banking may not be admitted/entertained if received by the Assembly Secretariat and the questions under reference may kindly be dropped from the question list”.
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