Farooq to seek PM’s help on Plan deadlock

NEW DELHI, OCT 25: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah is likely to seek the Prime Minister's intervention to resolve the dea...

NEW DELHI, OCT 25: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah is likely to seek the Prime Minister’s intervention to resolve the deadlock between his government and the Union Finance Commission over his state’s annual Plan, which has been hanging fire since August.

Farooq and his officers have held a two-hour meeting with Deputy Finance Commissioner K.C. Pant on the matter, at the end of which it was felt that another meeting was needed to resolve differences over statistics. This second meeting is yet to take place.

J-K Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather confesses that the state government is unhappy about the proposal to reduce the state’s share in central taxes. However, Planning Commission sources say J-K is being treated at a par with other states on the issue.

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J-K also wants the Centre to compensate it for the losses suffered by its public sector undertakings (PSUs) during the years of insurgency. The state government wants these losses to be treated as “security-related expenditure”, to be fully reimbursed by the Centre. This contention is again untenable, officials say.

National Conference sources admit Farooq is angry with the Planning Commission and had deliberately avoided meeting Pant. Although he had called on the Prime Minister at Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai to enquire about his health after the knee-replacement surgery, Farooq is reportedly waiting for Vajpayee to resume his duties fully to lodge a complaint.

Interestingly, the more the allocation of funds for J-K gets delayed, the more difficult it would be for it to utilise the money on time due to the limited working season in most parts of the state.

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