In a veiled attack against the Jammu and Kashmir government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday asked the trading community in Srinagar to make it (state government) accountable for Rs 1,000 crore relief amount released by the Centre.
The state government has been claiming that it hasn’t received the amount announced by the prime minister during his September 8 visit for flood victims. “The prime minister asked us to make state government accountable for the money released by him for relief. He (Modi) said the money stands released and the (state) government has failed to spend it,” Muhammad Ashraf Mir and Afaq Qadri, representatives of the State Economic Reconstruction Forum, an amalgam of traders’ bodies, were reported as saying, after meeting Modi.
Former president of Federation Chamber of Industries Kashmir Shakeel Qalander also echoed the same view. “We were surprised to know it because the state government has given the impression it has not been released,” Qalander, who is also member of Srinagar-based research and advocacy group, KCSDS, said.
“We also suggest deferring of polls till rehabilitation is not done,” he said, adding that a judicial probe should be ordered into the causes of floods and inundation of Srinagar city.
DH News Service
