By Sheikh Imran Bashir, AIP,
Srinagar: An RTI response has strongly torn apart the Jammu and Kashmir Government’s claims of austerity measures and empty coffers as for a peculiar information noticed by RTI came up to a statement which describes usage of money by some politicians for their personal and official purposes in mind blowing figures. As per reports Rs 6 crore were spent just on renovation and repair work of ministerial bungalows.
As earlier, the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had initiated the austerity drive by promising to reduce non-necessary expenditure which defines all.
However, RTI filed by a national news channel shows that the cut backs on official lunches, purchase of furniture and even stationary in government offices are just skin deep, moreover which is clearly revealing that how a whopping Rs 6 Crore was spent on repairing ministerial bungalows in the last one year. It also includes Rs 48.7 lakh spent on Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s own private office in Srinagar. Over Rs 47.4 lakh were also spent on the residence of the state’s Finance Minister and Rs 30 lakh on the Social Welfare Minister.
On this particular issue, Harsh Dev Singh, MLA, J-K Assembly said “The [austerity] drive is only on paper. We do not find it practiced in real life”.
He said that “and it is not just the current government in the state which is indulging in such spending. The cash strapped state, on an average spends Rs 6 to 10 Crore annually year on repairs or renovations on the ministerial houses”.
As per reports collected by Agence India press between 2004 and 2007, the ruling People’s Democratic Party-Congress coalition had spent Rs 24 Crore on similar repairs. While as Former Congress Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad reportedly spent Rs 11 Crore on his official residence while his predecessor Mufti Mohammad Sayeed spent Rs 5 Crore.
While on telephonic conversation with Agence India Press, Dipankar Sengupta, Professor, Economics at the University of said, the signal that it sends is austerity measures are for rest of the people. It’s a symptom where representatives of people do not feel accountable to the people.
Adding sengupta expressed that this practice is a ‘malice’ affecting the polity in the country.
In a state where coffers are said to be empty, perhaps it is high time the politicians learn that a penny saved is a penny earned.
[Photo by southasia.oneworld.net]