Srinagar, October 20 (Scoop News) – Expressing concern at the acute cash crunch faced by the state PDP today said the replacement of J&K Bank as the bankers to state government had just started showing its impact and worse may still be in store.
Senior party leader and former deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussain Beig in a statement said the sell out of J&K Bank was always fraught with dangers of a fiscal collapse but the waywardness of state government and its policies had created a crisis sooner than every body had apprehended.
Responding to reports that the treasuries were running dry and even GP fund withdrawal bills were not hounoured Beig said the state has never come across such a crisis situation in government payments. “At this rate the state could soon face default in the payment of salaries to its regular staff, even as the daily wage earners and other temporary categories are hardly ever paid months after the due dates”, Baig remarked. He said cash was now sold like a commodity at the treasuries and even small bills could be paid only with approval from the top most financial authorities.
Beig said the decision to replace JK Bank with RBI for cash management of the state was proving disastrous for fiscal autonomy of the state. By doing so the NC had closed all options for the state government to run itself with some degree of self respect , dignity and autonomy. This decision along with the selling of water resources to the NHPC in return for political power and comfort to Abdullah family had reduced the state to a begging bowl when it could have had surplus resources to channel into employment generation and development plans. “ No one in J&K could have remained unemployed if Dr Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah had not preferred their own employment at the cost of the interests of the state”, he said.
Beig said the present government had in any case brought the development agenda of the previous coalition to a grinding halt. Even the works being executed some how are facing closure because of the government’s inability to pay the contractors in time. He said the contractor community was up in arms and had threatened even to boycot future tendereing unless their demands were met. All the major schemes like ADB funded programme, PM’s package MNREGA, NURUM, PMGSY and Sarwa Sikhsha Abhiyan were facing hurdles in implementation because of political interference, lack of direction, monitoring and accountability, Beig added.
Commenting on the proposed amendments in the PSA Baig said these are mere eyewash and would make no difference to the fate of the political victims of the NC government. To the contrary this could only bring relief to anti social elements like the forest smugglers whom the NC holds very dear and for whom actually this law had been brought in. He said there is nothing new in the proposed amendments that could bring relief to the people as long as the NC followed its agenda of vendetta and intolerance.