Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, July 11: Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (NC) senior leader and Member of Parliament, Muhammad Akbar Lone today said Union Budget has nothing substantial for the development of the J&K State, saying the State has been meted out a raw deal in the Union Budget.
While participating in the debate on Annual Union Budget in the Lok Sabha, Lone said the State has been meted out a step motherly treatment. “No substantial allocation has been made by the Central Government for the augmentation of various mega development projects in the State. Our State has been ignored in the Union Budget; the mounting infrastructure demands have not been addressed in the financial statement. The fate of various projects has been put into a limbo,” he added.
Lone, said the fate of various projects which were approved by the BJP led Government in its previous term has not gone beyond inauguration stage. “There has been no significant headway in the completion of various protects in the State. There is no specific budgetary allocation for AIIMS in the State. The railway is yet to take off properly. The Government has miserably failed to bring the Kashmir on the railway map of the country. The budget is strangely mute on increasing the employment avenues for our youth. Issues like job creation and skill development hasn’t been touched by the Union Finance Minister. Even after seven decades of getting independence the Central Government has failed to ensure an all weather parallel connectivity to Kashmir. The Mughal road which could have acted as a parallel link to Kashmir is n’t being upgraded and worked upon; the Union Budget is explicitly mute on the extension of railway link to Kupwara from Baramulla.”
Lone said that the Union Budget has shut its eyes to the mounting woes of people of the State. “The vital road projects and tunnels including Z-Morh Tunnel, Sadhna Top Tunnel, and other inter-regional routes have been ignored in the union budjet. The projects are otherwise of national importance but unfortunately the Union Budget is mute on it.”
“The horticulture and the handicraft sector of the State have also been ignored in the budget. “I would say the maiden Union budget of the new Narendra Modi led Government is the replicate of the previous successive budgets of it. The State of J&K seems to have been deliberately kept out of the development radar by the incumbent Central Government,” he added.
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