Neeraj Rohmetra
JAMMU, Nov 2: The much sought after Special financial package worth Rs 44,000 crore, which is aimed at rehabilitation of people and restoration of infrastructure damaged in the floods is unlikely to see the light of day before the conclusion of the Assembly elections in the State.
Highly placed sources told EXCELSIOR, “though the State Cabinet, under the chairmanship of Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah had on October 10 given its formal approval to the Special financial package and expedited the process of submission of these details to the Union Home Ministry and Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), there is no clarity of the fate of package even 20 days after its submission”.
“Despite best efforts of the State to get the approval of the package before announcement of polls, the Centre has adopted a cautious approach, in view of the poor track record of Jammu and Kashmir in implementation of similar packages earlier”, sources said adding, “the MHA has responded by sending two high profile teams to the State comprising officials from several Ministries for on spot assessment of the losses on account of the natural calamity that struck the State on September 7”.
Sources said, “the Central teams had sought certain clarifications on the nature of damages in various sector and the same stand submitted to them. However, there is no word from either the concerned Department of the MHA over the package since the past 15 days”.
“With the announcement of polls in State and implementation of Model Code of Conduct (MCC), there is little hope of any movement on the subject before the conclusion of polls on December 29 and there were sufficient hints from the Central Government that they would not touch the package, before the new Government was in place in Jammu and Kashmir”, sources asserted. The term of the present 87 member Assembly ends on January 19 next year.
During the recent visit of the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi to the State on Diwali, the coalition Government had tried hard to get approval of the Centre for the financial package. But, the officials accompanying the Prime Minister were non-committal on the issue and only some “assurances” were offered to seriously consider the demand for Rs 44,000 crore package.
However, the Prime Minister has announced another package of Rs 745 crore for flood-hit people of State. While Rs 175 crore is for renovation of six major hospitals, additional Rs 570 crore is being provided for rebuilding damaged homes.
On September 8, the special assistance of Rs 1000 crore had been announced by the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi after conducting an aerial survey of the flood-affected Jammu and Srinagar regions. Besides, the Centre had authorise State to use funds to the tune of Rs 1100 crore from the State Disaster Relief Fund.
It may be noted that the floods in September caused havoc across many district of the State in which over 15 lakh families spread over 5794 villages were affected. As per the initial assessment received, around 344607 structures have suffered damages, 90 thousand cattle/sheep perished, crop loss reported in 6.52 lakh Ha of land besides huge loss to the public/private infrastructure.
The Special financial package besides other things had recommended payment of ex-gratia relief against the loss of private structures to the tune of Rs. 9 lakh for fully damaged Pucca house, Rs. 6 lakh for fully damaged kucha house, Rs. 4 lakh for partially damaged kucha/pucca house including boundary walls and Rs. 1 lakh for other structures.
Earlier, October 20, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had deputed Home Secretary, Anil Goswami to the State for detailed discussions of Rs 44,000 crores worth flood loss memo submitted by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. Two high level Central teams headed by Joint Secretary Home, M Gopal Reddy had sought sector wise complete details of the losses projected by the Government within the shortest possible time.
On October 18, a Central team toured twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch and village Saddal in Pancheri area of Udhampur district, which was flattened by fall of mountain killing 41 villagers. The second Central team also visited Bandipora district in Kashmir to assess damages caused by devastating floods in first week of September.
The two teams-one each for Jammu and Kashmir regions comprising top officers of different Union Ministries have been sent by Union Home Minister for independent investigation of losses caused by the worst ever floods and rains in first week of September in terms of Government infrastructure, private property and loss of lives etc.
The Committees comprised top ranking officers of Ministries of Home, Animal Husbandry, Health, Finance, Rural Development, Agriculture and Road and Surface Transport. All these sectors have been badly affected by the floods. There will be two top officers of these Ministries in the Committee-one each in separate Panel constituted for Jammu and Kashmir region.
It may be mentioned that the Government of India had decided to undertake an extensive study of devastation caused by last month’s floods through its own two high level teams.
The Centre decided to carry out its own assessment of damages caused to public property and Government infrastructure after a memo submitted to the Centre by the State Government seeking an unprecedented Rs 44,000 crores worth package for relief and rehabilitation measures for flood victims and infrastructure.
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