The latest relief package announced by the Central Government for the victims of September-2014 floods has evoked sharp resentment in Kashmir. While a senior ruling People’s Democratic Party leader and Member Parliament from Srinagar advised his party to rethink its alliance with the BJP after the announcement of “paltry amount”, Opposition National Conference (NC), Congress and alliance of traders and civil society groups described it as “insulting and disproportionate to the requirements of the flood victims”.
The Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday announced latest release of `2,437 crore for flood rehabilitation works in Jammu & Kashmir, a package welcomed by J&K Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu. But, a day after the announcement, the political parties and representatives of trade bodies squarely rejected it.
Senior PDP leader and MP Tariq Hameed Karra termed the relief package as a "paltry" amount and advised his party to rethink its alliance with the BJP if the Centre continues with the "same prejudiced approach towards Kashmiris."
He said the "Agenda of Alliance" between the PDP and the BJP has been just confined to paper and right from the day one there has been no consonance between the functioning of the coalition government.
"If the Government of India continues with same prejudiced approach towards Kashmir, PDP should rethink on its relation with the BJP as continuation in the coalition seems to be doing more damage to both Kashmiris and the party," Karra said in a statement here.
"Be it return of power projects from NHPC, allocation of resources or distribution of institutions between the regions, there are so many contradictions within the coalition," he said.
Describing the announcement as “cruel joke,"he said the Centre has brought to fore its "inherent bias towards Kashmiris". "The flood-relief package announced by the Government of India amounts to rubbing salt into the wound of Kashmiris," Karra said.
Expressing dismay over the Centre’s "brazenly apathetic" attitude towards the flood-affected people in Kashmir, Karra said "the much-hyped package announced by the Centre is not only grossly inadequate but also speaks of the perceptible bias in Government of India’s attitude towards Kashmir."
"Ironically, against the projected demand of `44,000 crore for relief and rehabilitation of the flood-affected infrastructure, the Government of India has after a delay of 10 months announced a paltry of `2,400 crore," he said.
The attitude of the Centre seems to be clearly discriminatory given the extent of financial assistance provided in similar tragic situations in Uttarakhand and even within J&K at leh, he added. "If Government of India can rush with assistance to Nepal during the quake, and genuinely so, and if it can do away with all the formalities to reach out to the flood-affected in Uttarakhand, why resort to double-standards when it has to reach out to the people of J&K in similar tragic situations," he said.
Meanwhile, a forum of civil society organisations, business and industries chambers, addressed a Press conference in Srinagar alleging that Centre’s latest release of `2,437 crore for flood rehabilitation works, is nowhere close to the `44,000 crore proposals submitted by the previous State Government to the Centre.
Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah described the package as “sanctions in drips and drabs”.