‘Major share to be spent on salary, 7th pay commission commitments’
Umer Maqbool
Srinagar, Mar 10 : Out of Rs 30757 crore allotted to the Jammu & Kashmir Union Territory in the Union Budget of 2020-21, only Rs 3678 crore will be spent on development projects.
Official documents in possession of wire service—reveal that funds earmarked in the union budget for J&K UT would mostly spent on paying salary, pension ,gratuity, 7th central pay commission allowances and leave travel allowances of employees .
According to the break-up provided by J&K government, Rs 22000 crore would be spent on the salary, pension and other revenue component deficit in J&K UT.
Around Rs 4800 crore would be spent on meeting 7th CPC Allowance and LTC as per commitments made the Prime Minister and Home Minister after bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories and abrogation of its special status on August 5.
Of this funding, Rs 279 crore has been kept as disaster response fund for meeting unforeseen eventualities in J&K as per the guidelines of the Disaster Response Fund.
According to documents, only Rs 3678 crore would be spent on development projects in UT. Of these Rs 3678 crore, Rs 1248 crore have been earmarked for funding of projects in rural and urban local bodies for one year and Rs 2430 crore for financing UT projects/schemes.
As per the documents, these funds are in addition to the resources being raised by J&K UT. “Additional requirements, if any, will be reviewed at RE stage and projected accordingly,” the documents further states.
The disclosure has put a question mark on claims made by several leaders that these funds would give a major boost to infrastructure development in J&K.
In the Union Budget unveiled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1, the Centre proposed Rs 30,757 crore for Jammu and Kashmir and Rs 5958 crore for Ladakh reported KNO.
