Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu today said the government was working out modalities to enable the return of projects being run by the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) to J&K.
“It is in the Agenda of Alliance. I have had extensive discussions with people in Delhi. Modalities are being worked out. We have worked out three or four modalities and will see which one suits best,” Drabu said while addressing a press conference soon after tabling the Budget in the Assembly.
He said he could not give the exact date as to when the power projects would be returned to the state as the NHPC was not run by the Centre. On being told that Union MoSfor Power Piyush Goyal had recently ruled out transfer of NHPC-run power projects, Drabu said, “He has a view and this is not for the first time that objections have been raised. He is a good friend of mine. He does not own the NHPC. I can assure you that extensive discussions have taken place.”
Drabu said the government had mainly focused on three areas in the Budget — providing relief to the ‘aam aadmi’, especially women, tackling corruption and incentives for industry investments in view of unemployment. “For the first time, we have specifically mentioned corruption. We have allocated Rs 1 lakh each in favour of all 193 police stations of the state as ‘cost of investigation’. It is a system-building Budget,” he added.
He said the government was concentrating on clearing liabilities, accumulated during previous regimes.
Working on return of power projects from NHPC : Drabu
