Farooq misusing Central funds: Dar

TRAL PULWAMA, FEB 22: Maqbool Dar, Union Minister of State for Home and Janata Dal candidate from Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency, has cha...

TRAL PULWAMA, FEB 22: Maqbool Dar, Union Minister of State for Home and Janata Dal candidate from Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency, has charged his political ally Farooq Abdullah with diverting special Central for the State for his personal luxuries.

8220;We have sent sackfuls of money which he Farooq Abdullah chose to spend for buying a helicopter to go around the country,8221; Dar told people at a small election rally here on Friday and a sought a second term for the Lok Sabha so that 8220;I can ask Farooq Abdullah to give complete account of the Central funds8221;.

Dar said the National Conference government had arbitrarily hiked the emoluments of state legislators and given fabulous perks to the partymen. 8220;My salary is much lower than that of a State legislator,8221; he said. The JD leader said the Central government had maintained a liberal funds flow to Jammu and Kashmir in view of its special needs for massive reconstruction but the money was instead used for 8220;buying helicopters to keep Farooq Abdullahflying all over country8221;.

Congress leader Mehbooba Mufti, who was campaigning for her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, also levelled similar allegations against the National Conference. Mehbooba said the Chief Minister 8220;had spent about Rs 40 lakhs for buying the helicopter and nearly Rs one crore for the fuel and maintenance expenses of the chopper8221;.

Dar sought to take credit for bringing two United Front prime ministers H D Deve Gowda and Inder kumar Gujral to Kashmir and for getting the railway line up to Baramulla sanctioned from the Central government. He said that his aim was not to give alms to Kashmir but to boost the economy of Kashmir through introduction of railways and industries.

Dar8217;s attack on Abdullah comes in the wake of the National Conference fielding its candidate from Anantnag against Dar. The Janata Dal sources say the party had decided not to field a candidate from other Valley constituencies in anticipation of the National Conference8217;s support to Dar. Dar said so far he did notbother to enquire about the use of Central funds by the National Conference government. 8220;Now I feel guilty of having given them a long rope8221;. Dar alleged that the Farooq Abdullah government had allocated a Rs 5 lakh house loan and other perks totalling worth Rs 22,000 per month for each of its legislators.

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Arjun8217;s successor Motilal Vora, though of the same party, was prompt to withdraw the share certificates. However, he kept on the system of awarding bonus, which usually amounts to Rs 200 per tribal a year and Rs 100 crore overall annually.

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Come 1990, and the BJP8217;s Sunderlal Patwa came to power. The policy now saw more changes. The bureaucracy8217;s hold on the system was ended and it was placed under the forest department.Patwa also ended the bonus system, alleging the money was actually being diverted to Congress accounts through some fancy book-keeping. To make up for this, he announced a Rs 10 increase in the wage of tendu collectors.

The tendu years are incidentally still haunting the BJP leader. Patwa has been indicted by the Justice Dube Commission in the charge of benefitting some tendu traders to the tune of Rs 212 crore through an untimely auction of leaves kept in government godowns.

The present Congress Government led by Digvijay Singh which has reverted to Arjun8217;s scheme of things has also been accused of the same. As the tendu trade is concentrated from April to August, any delay in auctioning of leaves can cause loss of crores of rupees to the government exchequer.Meanwhile, Arjun has got back into the picture. In 1996, he caused a stir through his string of letters to Digvijay over the disbursement of Rs 155-crore bonus to tendu leaf cooperatives. Congress leader Vidya Charan Shukla also sought to derivepolitical mileage and graced many disbursement functions all over Chattisgarh. However, the move backfired when two tribals died during one such function in Raipur district.