Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Oct 5: Legislators cutting across party lines today took a dig at the State Government for its ‘failure’ to take into confidence the members of Legislative Council while preparing the annual plans for the districts.
The legislators viewed that decisions taken in District Development Board (DDB) meetings are changed by the Government according to its own wish.
As soon as Minister In-charge Planning, Dr. Manohar Lal Sharma replied to the question and the supplementary of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) legislator Mohammad Ashraf Mir, some of the members stood up and showed concern over the alleged indifference by the State Government towards the MLCs while preparing the annual plans.
The whole debate was started by MLC Ashraf who said that the Government does not pay any heed to the suggestions and projections put forward by the MLCs during the DDB meetings. He said that development has been made a cruel joke by the Government.
“The people are being deprived of basic facilities like water, power and roads. It is all due to the bad planning of the Government that changes the plans of the districts according to their own convenience. You cannot paint a rosy picture of the Srinagar city by constructing fountains in some parts. Truth of the matter is that most of the people in the city don’t have water to drink,” said Ashraf.
He while referring to Srinagar district said that funds are diverted by the National Conference MLAs according to their own preference. He said most of the areas of the Sonwar Assembly constituency are suffering at the hands of the Government, adding that money meant for these areas have been diverted to some other areas.
Minister for Law, Parliamentary Affairs, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Ali Mohammad Sagar objected to the usage of words by Ashraf said that he should not have referred to MLA Sonwar, Mohammad Yaseen Shah as a sleeping man. Legislative Council chairman, Amrit Malhotra pulled up Ashraf for his remarks and asked him to desist from issuing such vague statements in future.
The Chairman seemed to be dissatisfied with the answer of the minister and he said that since matter is important it would be prudent to hold half an hour discussion on it. On this, Sagar stood up and said that it is not possible to hold discussion on the matter as the session is of short duration. This did not go well with PDP legislator Murtaza Ahmad Khan who said that Sagar is not respecting the chair and is issuing diktats to the Chairman.
Murtaza also viewed that MLCs have been turned into puppets and said that the Government should take them serious while formulating the annual plans of the various districts. He accused the Planning Minister of deceiving the members of the House by providing flimsy information about the role of MLCs in the plan formulation.
On this the Planning Minister while reacting sharply and said that Murtaza has a habit of creating ruckus and disturbance in the house. He said that instead of listening to the point of view of the Government Murtaza jumps the gun and blames the Government without knowing the basic facts of the case.
Taking part in the discussions, Jehangir Mir said that the recommendations of MLCs are never heeded to during the DDB meetings. He said the plans should be formulated without any influence from legislators, adding that at times the bureaucrats change the plan according to their own choice.
Khalid Najeeb Suharwardy said that at times the MLAs also complain that their recommendations are not accepted during the formulation of district plans. Syed Rafiq Shah said that he has never been asked to attend the DDB meeting of the Kupwara district ever since he was nominated to the Upper House.
The other MLCs who took part in the discussion include Ravinder Kumar Sharma, Sheikh Ghulam Rasool, Syed Asgar Ali and Subash Chander. The legislators demanded a pro-active role of the MLCs in the plan formulation of the district plans and said that they should have a say in the decisions taken in DDB meetings.
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