Anti-militancy ops, peaceful summer high on agenda
Budget discussions in advanced stage, presentation soon
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Feb 3: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha today returned here after four-day visit to New Delhi during which he met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and discussed with him security situation and other aspects in Jammu and Kashmir while annual budget of the Union Territory for 2021-22 was also discussed at various levels and is likely to be presented in the Parliament shortly.
Sources told the Excelsior that the Lieutenant Governor reportedly briefed the Union Home Minister on various aspects of the situation in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir including security related matters like anti-militancy operations and coordination among different security agencies.
However, there was no official word on what transpired at the meeting.
After various meetings in the Union capital, Sinha returned to winter capital of the Union Territory this afternoon. He was in New Delhi for last four days for various meetings.
“There has been considerable improvement in security situation in Jammu and Kashmir during past few months and incidents of militancy have been consistently on decline. A number of militants including top commanders have been killed in the coordinated operations by Army, Jammu and Kashmir Police (JKP) and Central Armed Police Force (CAPFs),” sources said, adding the Union Home Minister has been regularly monitoring and reviewing the situation in the Union Territory with top brass of Ministry of Home Affairs and J&K.
The Jammu and Kashmir Government and the Ministry of Home Affairs are busy in devising roadmap for summer in the Union Territory especially the Valley to ensure that situation remains calm which will facilitate arrival of tourists as COVID pandemic, which had spoiled tourist season last summer, has eased down considerably.
Few days back, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha had chaired crucial meeting of the Unified Headquarters to review security situation in Jammu and Kashmir especially the summer strategy to ensure that ongoing peaceful environment isn’t disturbed by the militants and other mischievous elements.
According to sources, the Home and Defence Ministries are also concerned over situation prevailing along the Line of Control (LoC) and International Border (IB) where Pakistan has been almost regularly resorting to ceasefire violations targeting forward defence posts and civilian areas.
“The border situation also came up for high-level review in the meeting,” sources said, adding the Central and UT Governments have already constructed number of bunkers for the civilians in frontier areas of LoC and International Border and more are planned to be raised.
Meanwhile, the Jammu and Kashmir bureaucrats have held detailed discussions over budget of the Union Territory with officials in the Finance Ministry and Home Ministry. Budget of Jammu and Kashmir is in advanced stage of finalization and is likely to be presented in the Parliament by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during ongoing budget session.
It may be mentioned here that in the absence of elected Legislature in Jammu and Kashmir due to delay in conduct of Assembly elections, annual budget of the Union Territory has to be passed in the Parliament.
The Finance Department is preparing the budget which will be formally approved by the Administrative Council.
The Jammu and Kashmir Government is set to project budget for next financial year of 2021-22 to the tune of around Rs 1.25 lakh crore, which will be higher than current fiscal year, which was to the tune of Rs 1.01 lakh crore, according to sources.
Describing Rs 1.25 lakh crore worth budget for Jammu and Kashmir as “quite significant”, sources said since the Union Home Ministry is controlling authority of all Union Territories, it has to clear the budget before it goes to the Parliament.
The Finance Department officials have completed discussions with different Government departments to know their needs for the next financial year of 2021-22 to incorporate them in the budget.
Jammu and Kashmir’s annual budget has seen steep hike during past three years. In 2019-20, J&K had 88,911 crore worth budget which went up to Rs one lakh crore for 2020-21 and is now expected to touch Rs 1.25 lakh crore in the financial year of 2021-22.
Regarding current financial year of 2020-21, sources said because of the financial discipline maintained by the Finance Department in Jammu and Kashmir, there has been no financial crunch. There has been full cooperation of the Union Home and Finance Ministries to Jammu and Kashmir Government in implementation of the budget proposals, the sources said.
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