Kara
KL Report
SRINAGAR
Holding National Conference-Congress Coalition government responsible for the present financial crisis in Jammu and Kashmir, Member Parliament and Senior People’s Democratic Party leader Tariq Hamid Karra Wednesday said that previous government neither managed the finances in a proper way nor utilized the funds properly.
Kara told Srinagar based news gathering agency CNS that there was mismanagement of finances and utilization of funds was not up to the mark during Omar Abdullah led previous government.
“The irony is that previous state government even failed to submit its Utilization Certificates before the centre and when such will be the case, State is bound to witness financial crunch,” he said.
“The exclusion of Jammu and Kashmir Bank as the banker to the state government was the most lethal nail by the National Conference into the state’s autonomy. By losing JK Bank’s autonomy to Reserve Bank of India, State lost the benefit of securing Over Draft facility from the bank. This disadvantage coupled with the mismanagement of finances forced State to reel under financial stability,” Kara said.
He said earlier we use to avail Over Draft facility from Jammu and Kashmir Bank to meet our requirements.
“When National Conference disfigured the autonomous character of Jammu and Kashmir Bank, right that time the economists had maintained that, If the mismatch between the central flow of funds and the requirement of plan funds continues with a wide time gap, then the state government may get into financial crisis, and same has happened. Now the State is in deep financial crisis and only New Delhi can bail it out,” he said.
Member Parliament Tariq Hamid Kara said that JK Bank was the backbone of the State’s economy but National Conference bartered its autonomy.
“It was this Bank that used to help the State in times of distress but under the agreement between State and RBI, that latter has right to carry on the general banking business of the Government of Jammu and Kashmir and act as the sole agent for investment of Government’s funds. Selling Banks autonomy was the first step towards JKB’s liquidation as a state-owned company,” he said.
Kara said that it is a misconception that Centre intentionally has stopped funding Jammu and Kashmir.
“Before getting assistance from the Centre you have to provide all the details of previous expenditures, for what purpose you utilized the funds and what was the nature of the project and when you even fail to provide utilization certificate to New Delhi, how come the Centre is going to release funds for you,” Kara said adding that the previous government was inefficient and ineffective and it never managed the finances properly.
