New Delhi, Apr 26: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today met Union Finance Minster, Pranab Mukherjee here and discussed with him various matters relating to the budget grants and other financial assistance by the Central Government to Jammu and Kashmir. The meeting lasted for 45 minutes.
 The Chief Minister reiterated the demand of State government to convert the advance additional Special Plan Assistance (SPA) into additional SPA and pending such a decision, Omar Abdullah emphasized that the State government may be granted a moratorium of 5 years on the recovery of the SPA.
 He said last year the Central Government had given generous support by way of additional SPA of Rs. 3124 crore to J&K to finance its Annual Plan 2009-10 of Rs. 5500 crore and similar support would be need at a higher scale for this year as well.
 Omar said that the Central Government had deducted an amount of Rs. 574.42 crore on account of shortfall in expenditure during the year 2005-06; 2006-07; and 2007-08 against the releases of Normal Central Assistance (NCA) of the year 2009-10. “This has impacted the state finances adversely”, The Chief Minister said that since the cut so imposed is not justified, the withheld amount should be released by the Union Ministry of Finance expeditiously so that pending bills of developmental expenditure of the previous year are paid to clear legitimate claims. The Union Finance Minister assured the J&K Chief Minister to consider the request of the State government for an early release of the withheld amount.
 The Chief Minster also took the opportunity of appraising the Union Finance Minister about the proposal of State government for the next year’s Plan and sought support of the Union Ministry of Finance in early finalization of the Schemes of Financing (SoF) of the Annual Plan 2010-11.
 Omar highlighted the need for special assistance from the Union Finance Minister in settling the issue of payment of arrears of the 6th Pay Commission in respect of the State government employees. While giving the background, the Chief Minister mentioned that the State government has already implemented the revised scales in respect of its employees from July 2009, however, in view of the scarce resources of the State, it is beyond the capacity of State government to address the issue of payment of the 6th Pay Commission arrears without the assistance and support of the Central Government.
 The Chief Minister suggested that as a special case an appropriate mechanism may be set up by the Union Government in this regard to work out required modalities for identification of resources in a cooperative manner. The Union Finance Minister took serious note of the suggestions put forth by the State government and assured that the Union Government would be willing to continue dialogue with State government to find some amicable settlement on the issue.

Lastupdate on : Mon, 26 Apr 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 26 Apr 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 27 Apr 2010 00:00:00 IST