While other States/UTs struggle to get a substantial budget, UT of Jammu and Kashmir has a huge one lakh plus crore budget for last so many years and still increasing, no dearth of finance for J&K from GoI. But ultimate usage has to be done by local administration, which time and again they have failed to do so, sometimes funds even surrendered. Reasons are different – legal disputes, objection from public, inter departmental rivalries and what not. Some officials have specialisation in passing on the buck with show busy do nothing attitude. The most recent casualty of this is Rs 1.5 crore grant for providing relief towards treatment of seriously injured persons in man-animal conflicts who are unable to pay for their treatment. It is important to mention that these are not ordinary injuries which can be treated easily, severely mauled victims who somehow survive the attacks have to undergo multiple surgeries for deformities developed due to injuries. Costly multiple plastic surgeries to get the person in right shape and all this comes at a price beyond the reach of an ordinary man. Both the SKIMS and Wildlife Department are in confrontation, each wanting to utilise finds as per their own convenience. Government has set the compensation amount long back, only question is who will decide the compensation and how much. While panel of doctors are supposed to decide the extent of damage and cost of treatment yet Wild Life Department wants to distribute the amount as per their own criteria. This infighting has resulted in 2019 grant unused, victims receiving nothing despite ample money being at disposal of authorities. Time for serious introspection, if officials have no sympathy or empathy with victims, then accountability has to be fixed and action should be taken to set a precedent.
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