Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Feb 12: The National Conference Member of Parliament from Anantnag, Justice (Retd) Hasnain Masoodi today said that the road to development in Jammu and Kashmir runs through peace but the idea of development is farfetched in uncertainty and deep despondency.
While speaking on the Budget 2021-22 in the Lok Sabha, Masoodi said the GoI’s policy towards Jammu and Kashmir must encapsulate all dimensions with peace building efforts at the heart of it. He said unless a positive environment wasn’t actualized by addressing the political aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, achieving anticipated development goals was unlikely.
“The Government has misread eerie calm in J&K as peace, the silence after the abrogation of Articles 370, 35-A is no indicator of peace. The ruling dispensation at New Delhi is under false impression that they have silenced Kashmir by the harshest clampdown post August 5th measures but that tantamount to living in denial. Since the state was unilaterally dismembered and sheared of its unique status there has been spur in the violence related incidents,” he said and expected that the party that helms the Central Government works towards achieving peace in its real sense by addressing the political aspirations of the people.
Remarking on the Annual financial statement 2021-22, Masoodi said the budget is mute on various issues concerning the people. He said that with the dearth of substantial fiscal support from the GoI, the projected objective seems farfetched. He pointed towards various disturbing trends in the annual budget saying the increase in the expenditure using capital revenue was one of them.
“Here the Government is not using the capital revenue to create new assets; the capital revenue is being used to pay for interest payments. Fiscal deficit being projected at 6.81 percent is itself is very disappointing,” he added.
Alluding to the introduction of agricultural cess in the budget, Masoodi stated that the measure disempowered the federal units of the country by hitting state revenues. “Following the introduction of the cess, states are likely to lose some revenue. Currently, the center shares 41 percent of its total tax revenue with states. But surcharges and cesses are not included in this pool. It is very unlikely that the center will share the revenue earned from such agriculture cess with the states,” he said.
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