JAMMU: MLA Udhampur Pawan Gupta on Tuesday slammed Government for disparity on funds allocated to Jammu region in Agriculture, Horticulture and other allied sectors despite its larger stake for having more area than Kashmir spread with arid Kandi belt.
In taking part on the demands of Agriculture Department as well as for Transport departments, he slammed the Government for projection for inflated figures in the demand for Agriculture department than reducing it from about Rs 900 crore to Rs 600 crore from the last year’s budget of Agriculture department. Terming the aforesaid gambit as misrepresentation before the House, he said that the projection of demand should have been on factual basis.
“Although, the KCC loans were announced by the Finance Minister for the year 2015-16 but unfortunately these have not been translated into reality and the farmers are feeling deceived”, he said. Pawan further invited the attention of the House that although the Udhampur district is well capable of producing a superior quality of walnuts and peanuts but no steps have been taken by the Government to tap the horticulture potential in this area. Climatically as already experienced the Lander area has become capable to produce saffron but till date no attention has been paid by the Government. The plains of Udhampur district are also capable to produce special quality of mangoes, etc. and therefore Gupta vociferously demanded parity in allocation of funds for both Horticulture and Agriculture sectors.
Pawan also focused the attention of the House that 7,000 families of Udhampur district are fed by cash-crop of Sericulture sector and the best quality of cocoon is produced at Udhampur like Rajouri district. He suggested cluster based development of Sericulture sector in Udhampur district right from cocoon to finished silk products and market. He reminded the Agriculture Minister for his announcement for establishment of silk park for Udhampur which may be fulfilled without further delay.
Pawan also drew attention of the Agriculture Minister that Udhampur area can meet the demand of flowers of best quality Marigold and has big scope for Agriculture promotion which need to be addressed by the government judiciously so as to create self employment avenues for youth of this area.
In case of Transport sector, Pawan expressed his serious concern on the perpetuated loses in SRTC despite assurances during the last year’s budget for its improvements. “SRTC carrying manual accounting instead of e-accounting and that too without conduct of audits has resulted into siphoning of the State Exchequer”, he maintained adding that despite getting FCI and other contracts with 50 per cent profit as commission, SRTC is still running into losses. “The Finance Minister announced outsourcing of State Motor Garages but till date nothing has been done. The Motor Vehicle Act also needs to be revived and strictly enforced”, Pawan said and demanded installation of crash barriers along the roads to avoid accidents.