Prime Minister Narendra Modi will announce a special package worth over Rs 75,000 crore for Jammu and Kashmir in Srinagar on Saturday, eight months after the PDP-BJP alliance assumed charge in the state.
According to government sources, Modi is likely to spell out the details of the package during a public meeting at the Sher-e-Kashmir cricket stadium in his fourth visit to the state since the NDA came to power at the Centre.
The package will be “over and above” the normal Plan and non-Plan transfers made by the Centre, and the funds would be spent over a period of time based on the ability and the spending capacity of the state government, sources said.
Since Mufti Mohammad Sayeed took over as Chief Minister on March 1, the state has been pushing hard for a development package, particularly after the devastating floods last year.
J&K Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu had met Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in July to seek funds to the tune of Rs 1.27 lakh crore. In June, during a meeting of Central government secretaries called by Jaitley, Drabu had made a detailed presentation on a revival strategy for J&K’s economy.
A government source said that the package would be split into five segments: humanitarian relief, disaster management, social infrastructure, physical infrastructure and development spending.
“The funding is not just for relief and rehabilitation. Spending on infrastructure, both social and physical, is key to the plan. The objective is to generate income and revenues by creating productive assets,” the source said.
A press statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said that besides the meeting at the stadium, Modi will inaugurate the 450 mw Baglihar hydro electric project (state II) and address another gathering as he lays the foundation stone for the four-laning of the Udhampur-Ramban and Ramban-Banihal section of National Highway 44.
There were expectations that the Prime Minister would announce a financial package during his previous visit to J&K in July but the details were still being discussed at the time. The package was finalised after Sayeed called on Modi in Delhi on October 16 to discuss the overall situation in the state and its development agenda.
This will be the second such big-ticket announcement by Prime Minister Modi after the Rs 1.25 lakh crore package for Bihar in mid-August ahead of the assembly elections. Other states, such as Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Punjab and Odisha, have demanded similar assistance.
In presenting a Rs 46,473 crore Budget for 2015-16, Drabu had set aside Rs 11,246 crore for building assets and infrastructure. He discarded the Plan and non-Plan classification following the award of the Fourteenth Finance Commission. He kept the fiscal stance expansionary to give a fillip to the state economy.