Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Mar 25: State Government, which is time and again beating drums of ensuring equitable and balanced development of all the regions, has actually not shed its habit of discriminating with the Jammu region in the allocation of funds.
This has been substantiated in the official data of the Planning and Development Department about the additional funds released under District Sector during 2012-13 and 2013-14 (ending January), which is in the possession of EXCELSIOR.
During these two years, districts of Kashmir valley received a total of Rs 1429.26 lakh additional funds while as merely an amount of Rs 446.96 lakh was provided as additionalities to the districts of Jammu region.
The data clearly establishes how much liberal the Government was in granting additionalities to the districts of Kashmir valley as compared to the districts of Jammu region. In this way, the general feeling in Jammu region that this part of the State is being discriminated with gets vindicated and the tall claims of the Government about ensuring equitable treatment exposed.
The Plan funds to the districts are allocated on the basis of laid down parameters like geographical area, population of the district, backwardness/availability of infrastructure in the district, requirement as assessed and projected by the line departments/District Development Commissioners, development requirements on ground or demands projected by the members of the District Development Board and completion of critical ongoing projects etc.
Similarly, the additionalities are released to the districts on the basis of parameters, which include availability resources, requirement as assessed and projected by line departments, development requirements on ground (emergent requirements), demands projected by the Members of the DDB, to address critical gaps in infrastructure and completing ongoing projects/schemes etc.
“But the trend of releasing additionalities to the districts during the past two years clearly establishes that either laid down parameters were not strictly followed while granting additional funds or the same were intentionally ignored for obvious reasons in case of districts of Jammu region”, sources told EXCELSIOR, adding “whatever may be the reasons the fact is that Kashmir valley districts were provided lion’s share while as meager additional funds were provided to the districts of Jammu region during 2012-13 and 2013-14 (ending January 2014)”.
According to the data, during 2012-13 financial year, the districts of Kashmir valley were provided Rs 1047.82 lakh additional funds while as Jammu region’s districts received only Rs 334.22 lakh additional funds. Similarly, during 2013-14 (ending January 2014), Jammu region’s districts received Rs 112.74 lakh additional funds as compared to Rs 381.44 lakh provided to districts of Kashmir valley.
In 2012-13, Srinagar district received Rs 51 lakh additionality while as Jammu district received Rs 40 lakh. Ganderbal district received Rs 302.63 lakh additional funds, Budgam Rs 200.59 lakh, Anantnag Rs 30 lakh, Kulgam Rs 15 lakh, Pulwama Rs 38.50 lakh, Shopian Rs 27.05 lakh, Baramulla Rs 247.04 lakh and Bandipora Rs 136.01 lakh.
During this year, Samba district received Rs 7.50 lakh additional funds while as no additionality was provided to Udhampur, Kathua and Poonch districts. Reasi district received Rs 15 lakh, Doda Rs 73.13 lakh, Kishtwar Rs 50 lakh, Rajouri Rs 98.59 lakh.
In 2013-14, Ganderbal received Rs 104.06 lakh, Budgam Rs 131 lakh, Anantnag Rs 18.62 lakh, Kulgam Rs 20.76 lakh, Pulwama Rs 15 lakh, Shopian Rs 35 lakh, Baramulla Rs 36 lakh and Bandipora Rs 21 lakh. Even during this year, no additional funds were provided to Kupwara district.
During this year, Jammu district was provided Rs 92.07 lakh, Udhampur Rs 9.37 lakh, Reasi Rs 5 lakh and Ramban Rs 5.40 lakh. However, no additional funds were provided to Poonch, Rajouri, Kishtwar, Doda, Kathua and Samba districts.
The perusal of this data establishes that those districts of the Jammu region, which otherwise require special attention were completely ignored while granting additional funds. Similarly, some of the districts in the Kashmir valley like Kupwara were also discriminated with by the Government. One more fact which emerges from the data is that lion’s share was provided to the districts represented by some influential Ministers and Chief Minister.
In this way, the tall claims of the Government about ensuring equitable and balanced development of all the regions with special focus on those areas which are lagging behind in the developmental process have been exposed.
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