Equitable Development? Jammu gets Rs 375 cr, Kashmir Rs 305 cr for roads

Kashmir continues to be the least priority in funding under the Central Road Fund (CRF) program with the Government of India (GoI) approving Rs 70 crore less to the division than Jammu for building road infrastructure.

Official sources revealed to us that GoI has sanctioned road projects worth Rs 305 crore for Kashmir under CRF for 2015-16 while Jammu and Ladakh have respectively walked away with Rs 375 crore and Rs 105 crore funding for the road projects. The approval for road projects worth Rs 785 crore was recently conveyed by the Union Ministry of Roads, Transport & Highways to the Jammu & Kashmir Government.

As already reported by us; in 2013-14 when NC-Congress coalition was ruling the State, Kashmir got meagre Rs 15 crore under CRF while Jammu walked away with Rs 86 crore. The skewed funding for the region continued in 2014-15 with Jammu getting Rs 205 crore and Kashmir just Rs 142 crore.

Kashmir was also at tail-end in road sector funding under the development package rolled out by Prime Minister NarendraModi on November 7 last year in Srinagar with Ladakh walking away with lion’s share.

The fresh disparity has strengthened the long-held grievance that Kashmir is being discriminated against in several sectors.

The disproportionate funding has often come under criticism with different quarters questioning the ‘parochial’ methods being adopted by the authorities in J&K for distributing funds rather going by the rational method of population strength to spend development funds.

As per 2011 census, the population of Kashmir is 70 lakhs while that of Jammu is 53 lakhs. The population of Ladakh is 2.80 lakh as per the census.

Kashmir has 46 assembly constituencies while Jammu and Ladakh respectively have 37 and four segments.

The previous PDP-BJP government had pledged in its governance framework to ensure equitable distribution and balanced development across all three regions of the State.

In its Agenda of Alliance, the coalition had promised to institute “a system of criteria- based allocation of financial resources across all 3 regions to ensure equitable distribution and balanced development.”

A senior engineer in R&B department, preferring anonymity, admitted that Kashmir is getting meagre financial allocations under CRF.

He said the authority for sanctioning the projects under CRF lies with the Government of India.

When contacted, Commissioner Secretary, Roads & Buildings department, Rohit Kansal said, “While proposing the projects to the Government of India, we ensure that the regional balance is maintained and all regions get equal due.”