Rs 260 cr for Industry Development, Rs 225 cr for scholarships
Ratle gets Rs 476 cr, Kiru Rs 130 cr, Bhaderwah Plant Rs 4 cr
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Feb 1: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today granted Rs 35,581.44 crore to Jammu and Kashmir as part of the Central Government’s assistance, grants and loans for the next financial year of 2022-23.
The Central grants to Jammu and Kashmir were up by around Rs 877 crore as compared to current fiscal year of 2021-22.
Sitharaman has also granted handsome grants to Jammu and Kashmir for Special Scholarship Scheme, Institute of High Altitude Medicinal Plants at Bhaderwah, Industrial Development Scheme for Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh and package for Special Category States for J&K, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
All the grants were announced by the Finance Minister in annual budget for 2022-23 presented in the Parliament today.
In a major boost for border villages, Sitharaman announced ‘Vibrant Villages Programmes’ under which various facilities will be provided to them.
“Border villages with sparse population, limited connectivity and infrastructure often get left out from the development gains. Such villages on the northern border will be covered under new ‘Vibrant Villages Programme’. The activities will include construction of village infrastructure, housing, tourist centres, road connectivity, provisioning of decentralized renewable energy, direct to home access for Doordarshan and educational channels and support for livelihood mission,” she said.
She added: “Existing schemes (in the border villages) will be covered and the Government will define their outcomes and monitor them on a constant basis”.
Sitharaman kept a provision of Rs 29.5 crore Package for Special Category States of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, Rs 110 crore for Industrial Development Scheme 2017 for Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh and Rs 150 crore for Industrial Development Scheme of J&K.
She kept a provision of Rs 225 crore for Jammu and Kashmir under ‘Special Scholarship Scheme’. She also announced Rs 4 crore for Institute of High Altitude Medicinal Plants in Bhaderwah tehsil of Doda district.
The Finance Minister announced total Central grants to the tune of Rs 35,581.44 crore for Jammu and Kashmir for the financial year 2022-23 in the budget. Similar grants for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir were Rs 34,704 crore for current financial year.
“It will be an increase of Rs 877 crore for Jammu and Kashmir for 2022-23,” the figures revealed.
Bulk of the funds—Rs 33,923 crore in the budget for Jammu and Kashmir is under the Central assistance.
A sum of Rs 273 crore has been allocated as grants towards rehabilitation of Dal Nageen lake while Rs 279 crore were given as grants for contribution to Union Territory’s Disaster Response Fund.
The budget allocated Rs 500 crore as support for capital expenditure of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir while Rs 476.44 crore were allocated as grants toward equity for Ratle 800 MW hydroelectric project and Rs 130 crore were given a grants towards equity contribution for 624 MW Kiru hydroelectric project.
The budget documents revealed that the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has requested the Government of Jammu and Kashmir to levy zero percent VAT on natural gas in the UT.
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