The flood-affected traders and businessmen in Kashmir—who suffered huge losses in the September-2014 floods—won’t be getting any compensation as promised to them by the central and state government from time to time.
Official sources disclosed to KP that the Government of India has decided against rehabilitating the flood-hit traders and provide interest subvention instead of any compensation.“After studying the contours of Rs 80000-crore package announced by the Prime Minister NarendraModi in Srinagar last year, it has come to the fore the Rs 800 crore earmarked for the business losses will be provided in terms of interest subvention on loans and not as compensation as was earlier provided by the J&K government under Chief Minister’s fund,” said a senior government official, who insisted not to be named.
He said the J&K government has prepared a list of 50,081 flood-hit traders whose names and credentials were forwarded to the central government. Out these, 37629 traders have suffered losses uptoRs 5 lakh while others have suffered losses between Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh and are numbered 12,452.
“The central government asked the State to provide bank details for the loans. So there will be no compensation or rehabilitation as the PM package itself mentions that Rs 800 crore is meant for interest subvention,” the official said.
To mention, interest subvention simply means a subsidy offered on interest rates on bank loans. Curiously, as per the traders, there are more than 30,000 traders who have no bank liabilities against them. In this case, they would not be eligible to get any help from the Centre under the Package.
Meanwhile, the government’s move has come as a shock to the business community which is yet to recuperate from the huge financial losses incurred during the devastating September 2014 floods.
Businessmen and traders were made to submit documents and bank details at respective DC offices with a hope that they would get compensation amount transferred to their bank accounts.
“It is a joke. We were given to understand Rs 800 crore is the compensation component. But now the government is telling us that it is an interest subvention. What purpose will it serve for a businessman who has suffered huge losses and doesn’t have bank loan against him?” asked the President of Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mushtaq Ahmad Wani.
He said the government has completely failed to rehabilitate flood-hit traders as a result of which there is a recession in the market and oft-repeated promises by mainstream politicians have to proven to be a hoax.
