Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Mar 15: National Conference on Tuesday said the J&K Budget 2022- 23 presented in the Parliament by the Union Finance Minister has ignored the established parliamentary norms and the aspirations of all the concerned stakeholders.
This was stated by NC Member of Parliament from Anantnag, Hasnain Masoodi, while replying to the Union Finance Ministers Budget speech in the Parliament late evening in Lok Sabha, while taking part in the discussions on the annual financial statement with regards to Jammu and Kashmir.
Taking strong exception to the suspension of Rule 205 of the Parliamentary proceedings, Masoodi said: “The honourable members of the House were deprived of their right to discuss the budget. It has never been the case that a budget bill was tabled and passed on the same day. We were not given due time to study the allocations and estimates proposed in the budget. The members of this august House were practically deprived of their right to discuss the various facets of the financial statement that directly concerns 1.5 crore people.”
The budget, Masoodi said, is the fourth budget in a row which wasn’t passed by the elected legislature of Jammu and Kashmir. “The exercise itself raises a question why an entire populace of nearly 1.50 Cr people continue to remain without a representative Assembly. An elected Assembly could have discussed and ascertained the needs and aspirations of the people of JK before tabling annual budgetary allocations and estimates. It is again for the fourth time that the concerned stakeholders were not consulted before the tabling of the budget,” he said.
Reflecting on the budgetary allocations, he said that the budget steers clear of health, education, agriculture sectors while nearly 73 percent of the budget has been earmarked for the Home Department only.
He added that the budget has failed to satisfy all stakeholders, particularly the 61,000 contractual, daily rated, need based wagers working in a number of Government departments.
Drawing the attention of the house towards the appalling condition of NH 44, Masoodi said the highway connecting Kashmir with the rest of the country was closed for one and a half months not so long ago. The budget, he said, has nothing substantial for the up gradation and augmentation of road infrastructure in JK.
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