The present PDP-BJP Government was once again caught on the wrong foot after it tendered wrong information as alleged in the Legislative Assembly. The government informed the House in a written reply to the question of Ali Mohammad Sagar, National Conference member, that Rs 2,000 crore had been approved under the Prime Minister’s Development Package for one-time settlement of 36,384 displaced families from PoK and Chhamb. In fact Sagar’s question was about the details of the expenditure incurred on various development works in different sectors under PM’s Rs 80,000-crore package. The government went on to say in reply that not even a single penny had been sanctioned so far from the approved fund of Rs 2,000 crore by the Centre. Out of the 36,384 displaced families from PoK and Chhamb, over 6,600 families have already received relief to the tune of Rs 5.5 lakh per family. On December 12, 2016, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti had started disbursement of relief to the refugee families. She had handed over cheques worth Rs. 5.5 lakh each to 25 PoK refugees families. The information is completely wrong. To hide its mistake in the release of relief to refugees and displaced persons, the State Government has misinformed the Assembly that the Centre has not released any fund so far was what most of the party representatives felt. Official data also revealed that relief under the PM’s package had already been disbursed to over 6,600 families. In response to an RTI application filed by Rohit Choudhary, a Jammu-based activist, Ram Krishna Swarnakar, Central Public Information Officer, J&K Division, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, said Rs 308 crore had been released to 6,601 families till date through direct benefit transfer mode in their Aadhaar-linked bank accounts. Not only this there were also allegations of misleading reply given to question pertaining to two roads of the Udhampur Constituency under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF). The government had mentioned that two roads would be taken up under the RIDF in the Udhampur Constituency, but both the roads, named in the reply, were not part of his segment, said Pawan Gupta, Independent member of the House from the constituency. He also announced to move “breach of privilege motion” against the government for furnishing a wrong reply to him on the floor of the Assembly. Surprisingly, in the era of Information Technology and when government is talking of e-governance such erroneous replies in the House can leave no space for correction and creates confusion among the people.
