NC, Congress, PDF demand equitable development
The Jammu region has got Rs 2000 crore more funds from the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s package than Kashmir.While giving the break-up of the package, the government said that Rs 1000 crore each have been allotted for IIM and IIT which are being constructed in Jammu.
The government said that Rs 1000 Crore has been allotted to IIM Jammu, Rs 1000 Crore for IIT Jammu, Rs 2000 Crore for AIIMS, and for Smart City Rs 250 Crore.
For Kashmir, Rs 2000 Crore has been allotted for AIIMS and Smart City Rs 250 Crore has been allotted. But valley has no IIT or IIM, which clearly means Jammu has got Rs 2000 crore more into its kitty.
While the PDP-BJP government has repeatedly said that it has the mandate of all the three regions and was for equitable development of all the regions. However, valleyities see it as discrimination by the state as well as the central government.
Opposition National Conference slammed the both the state’s PDP –led government and the centre for failing to compensate the Kashmir region after IIM and IIT were sanctioned to Jammu.
“The government must do something to compensate Kashmir region by establishing such facilities here also, so that both the regions get equitable development,” NC Kashmir Province President Nasir Aslam Wani said.
Wani said that the PDP leadership has “submitted itself before the RSS and BJP for accommodating Mehbooba Mufti”.
Peoples Democratic Front President and MLA Khansahib Hakim Mohammad Yaseen said that the funds allotted to Kashmir region “is one more ridicule after the PM’s package”.
“Though I am against regionalism in the state, but the government is itself resorting to regionalism. The present dispensation has ignored Kashmir while allotting equitable funds from the so-called package,” Yaseen told KNS.
He said the PDP leadership has done all this to please RSS and BJP “to rehabilitate” Mehbooba Mufti.
“Development of the state is all right but not at the cost of one region. If the government announced funds for Kashmiri Pandit migrants and refugees, which is all welcome, why not for those Kashmiri people who have suffered in the last two decades,” he said.
JK Congress President G A Mir said that the government must sanction IIT and IIM for Kashmir to maintain for equitable development of all the regions.
“Kashmir must also be given IIM and IIT. When the government can sanction AIIMS for Jammu even though only AIIMS was allotted for Kashmir, why cannot it sanction IIT and IIM for Kashmir,” Mir said.
”No region should be left out by the government from development. Congress will demand IIT and IIM for Kashmir as the region needs it to alleviate the education problems of the youth,” he said. (KNS)
